IMDA/HIRA Annual Conference
Specialty dealers discuss trends at the IMDA/HIRA Annual Conference
Selling medical devices has changed over the years. A big reason is, your customers have changed.
Providers are increasingly reimbursed – or penalized – on the basis of patient outcomes. They’re concerned about patient satisfaction. All of their payers – public and private – are stingier with reimbursement. Doctors are no longer the sole decision-makers on new technologies.
But some things about selling haven’t changed. For example, honesty and sincerity still count. So does respect for the customer’s “rules of engagement,” even if those rules (e.g., vendor credentialing) rub suppliers the wrong way.
Specialty dealers can reconcile the new realities of selling with the old by selling value – a key topic at the IMDA/HIRA Annual Conference, “The Many Facets of Value,” held in suburban Chicago this summer.
Where cost, quality and outcomes intersect
Mike Schiller, vice president of healthcare engagement for Matrix IT, urged conference attendees to familiarize themselves with the CQO initiative of the Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management. (Schiller was the senior director of AHRMM prior to joining Matrix IT.)
“CQO” stands for “cost,” “quality” and “outcomes,” and it examines the intersection of:
- Cost (i.e., all costs associated with caring for individuals and communities).
- Quality (achieving the best possible health).
- Outcomes (i.e., financial results driven by exceptional patient outcomes).
Dealers can – and must – help their customers connect the dots between all three, said Schiller.
Make your case
Dealers know that’s not easy, especially considering that providers are approached dozens of times every month about new technologies. For that reason, they should avoid overloading potential customers with information, suggested value analysis expert Dee Donatelli, Newton, Kansas.
“Too much information is a roadblock,” said Donatelli, who is the incoming president of AHRMM as well as past president of the Association of Health Care Value Analysis Professionals. “Less is more.” Boil your information down to the pertinent factors, she suggested. Provide links if necessary. And don’t fret if you lack randomized, double-blind clinical studies for your technology. They rarely exist, particularly for new technologies. If all you have is a case study or success story, go with it, she advised.
“But don’t buffalo your buyer and try to pull off ‘information’ as ‘evidence,’” she said. “Don’t pass off your marketing slick as evidence.”
Bring the right answers to providers before they ask the questions, advised Donatelli. Anticipate questions like these:
- “How much will this technology increase revenues?”
- “How, specifically, will it help reduce cost?”
- “How will it lead to improved outcomes?”
- “How much savings will the provider realize through improved utilization?”
- “What will be the costs associated with converting to the new technology?”
- “Will this device or technology improve physician relationships or help my health system grow market share?”
Reaching the C suite
The third speaker on quality – Richard Priore, president and CEO, Excelsior HealthCare Group – pointed out that health system administrators are swamped with competing priorities. They lack time to consider the value proposition of every new device or piece of equipment. But vendors that can monetize quality, that is, translate “quality” into “return on investment,” may get a hearing.
(Priore has more than 25 years in the investor-owned for-profit, private not-for-profit and government healthcare sectors, with senior executive roles in integrated and academic health systems, physician-owned specialty hospitals, and large multispecialty group practices.)
Dealers should have a grasp of basic financial concepts, and they should study customer-level financial data before making sales calls, advised Priore. They should be prepared to discuss things like shared-risk agreements with the health system.
It’s true that the movement to value-based payment is occurring more slowly than payers and providers had anticipated, he said. “Value equals quality over cost. And you can’t talk about quality without talking about cost.”