By Gina Smith, CMRP, Director of Business Development, Health Industry Distributors Association
Planning for and understanding demand in the marketplace has always been a challenge. Federal government data can be as much as two years old or more by the time it is readily available for the healthcare supply chain. Distributor-reported sales data typically comes out 45 days after quarter end. And even some providers have a hard time turning around their own data.
In order to more quickly identify crucial factors that affect demand for medical* products, HIDA has created MarketPULSE to gather patient utilization data directly from providers. This information is delivered in a quarterly subscription report on national and regional patient activity for four major markets: acute care, extended care (primarily SNFs), primary care, and laboratory.
HIDA’s first Extended Care MarketPULSE will be available next month and other markets will follow throughout 2016. In fact, Repertoire’s sister publication The Journal of Healthcare Contracting is the sponsor for our upcoming Acute Care MarketPULSE.
These report chartbooks provide a detailed examination of demand metrics to allow you to track patient activity in your customers’ markets. In Extended Care, for example, HIDA collects data from a panel of more than 200 skilled nursing facility (SNF) administrators, CEOs, presidents, or owners who report to us on admissions, occupancy, and other key factors that impact purchasing.
HIDA’s unique algorithms will weight the top five demand metrics according to market and assign a point value. In Extended Care, this will provide an exclusive Acuity-Weighted Index for skilled nursing facilities. The quarterly report will depict the index’s changes over five rolling quarters within a contraction/expansion index to give an easy-to-understand visual on patient demand.
Subscribers will receive this information within 15-21 days of quarter-end, making this one of the fastest views available on utilization. With the report, subscribers will be able to compare the most recent quarter to the prior quarter, as well as quarter-over-quarter detail. Five rolling quarters allow for a full-year view in every report.
Additionally, participation data will be sorted into six geographical regions (NE, SE, NC, SC, NW, SW) as well as by bed size, to allow examination of geographic and facility trends –particularly helpful for distributors who may be limited in size or service area.
Another easy-to-use component in the report will be a visual scorecard on the top five demand metrics, indicating whether they are up, down, or flat compared to the prior quarter. Subscribing manufacturers, distributors, and other industry stakeholders can use both the index and scorecard to compare their own sales to market performance. Each of the four markets covered will have its own specially-designed market-appropriate scorecard. All reports will include both national and regional indices and scorecards, as well as detail by region on each demand marker.
MarketPULSE is an exclusive product created, reported, and analyzed by HIDA’s Research and Analytics department. Annual subscriptions will be accepted beginning July 1, at www.HIDA.org/MarketPulse. For more information, call me at 703-838-6116 or email at gsmith@hida.org.
*For purposes of this article, medical products include medical, surgical, and laboratory products and equipment.