medSage | TECHNOLOGIES

What is different about the medSage approach?

Before medSage introduced its solution, many homecare providers, having built their companies on oxygen and respiratory medication therapies, tried to adapt their manual call process used for COPD patients to manage their OSA population. The result was not what they expected.

OSA patients are a younger, healthier and more active group and, as such, much more difficult to reach. It is not uncommon for a manual call center to only be successful in reaching 15% to 20% of their OSA patients. In contrast, customers using medSage regularly reach 65% or more of their patients every quarter!

Why do OSA patients take our call?

Most sleep apnea patients, while suffering from a serious disorder, remain active functional citizens. They take a personal interest in managing their sleep disorder, but also want to do so in the most efficient means possible. For years, because this group was so difficult to reach, the majority of these patients were left to manage their disease on their own.

With medSage, our customers have a convenient means to help these patients. The patients recognize the call because it is placed using the therapist's voice and provider caller ID. The call itself is simple and dialog based – no buttons to push, the patient simply answers as they would answer their therapist. The calls are placed during targeted times when the patient is more likely to be available and, if we miss the patient, they can call back any time, day or night!

In addition to unprecedented convenience, the patient also knows that if they indicate that they need something, their provider will be following up with them promptly to help resolve a clinical issue or simply replace a worn out mask. Because medSage is flagging and prioritizing the patients that need their help, our customers can afford to give the patients who need help the attention they require. We free the provider to focus on patient care, rather than leaving voicemails all day!

Because the use of medSage allows providers to contact their patients more regularly, our customers enjoy a number of benefits for their business:

1. Enhanced patient compliance to their therapy
2. Significant increases in supply based revenue
3. Increased patient traction - patients stay under provider care longer
4. Marketing differentiation and competitive advantage
5. Improved operational efficiencies through data and decision support tools

97% of medSage customers report that their quality of care has improved since implementing medSage.

While we are very proud that the use of our product leads to improved patient care, there is no mystery as to the reason for this improvement. The cause can be traced simply to more frequent and effective provider follow up with their patients. Rather than trying to reach patients, usually with limited success, medSage provides a means to touch all of your patients in a frequent and cost effective manner. Patients who need help are highlighted and prioritized automatically, resulting in a more proactive total care process for the patient. The result is that our customers enjoy an increase in patient therapeutic compliance and a long term decrease in patient problems. In the beginning, we are highlighting more problems, but as these are addressed, clinical outcomes improve.

In addition to superior clinical outcomes, medSage customers have quantifiable data to prove what they can do. In addition to compliance reports, our customers receive customized marketing material designed to highlight their patient care program. This marketing material is not just a piece of literature. It includes customer specific performance data, benchmarks showing how each provider compares to national averages and demonstrated benefits of our customers vs. their competition.

Consider the effect of taking this type of data to your referrals!

How does medSage help providers survive in the new competitive environment?

The U.S. home healthcare industry continues to experience severe downward reimbursement pressures while, at the same time, enjoying large growth in the number of patients in need of service. Significant and profound changes are required for long term survival. The survivors will be providers who find ways to decrease costs and increase revenue per patient.

Providers using the medSage OSA application enjoy significant increased revenue. This is achieved by calling the patients at the most appropriate time, based upon their individual eligibility, and asking only the appropriate questions when we connect with the patient.

medSage customers have grown their CPAP supply replacement sales at an annualized rate of more than 180% over the last 4 years! Increased revenue is not a one time benefit… most medSage customers have been experiencing a 20% growth, quarter over quarter for years running!

In addition to greatly increasing top line revenue, medsage customers also improve operational efficiencies. While medSage provides world class software, it is much more than just a software company. The OSA patient management solution includes a healthy dose of service, including best practices, industry benchmarking, data services and consulting services.

While easy to say and hard to do, medSage provides an array of valuable services as part of our standard offering. These services include:

Regular status summary reviews designed to help our customers identify opportunities for continued process improvements. Operational reports show patient connections by demographic group, clinical metrics, revenue trends and highlight operational performance.

Clinical outcome reports, provided as part of our service, help our customers make more informed business decisions. Mask compliance reports provide a real world metric of each provider’s patient compliance for each mask family.

OSA Patient Management Application Features

The medSage OSA Patient Management solution is a comprehensive platform for the management of your OSA patient population comprised of three components: HCPro, HCVoice and HC Analytics.

HCPro

HCPro is the HIPAA compliant software platform for our service and the cornerstone of our offering. Our software pulls raw transactional data from a provider’s billing and patient management software and generates all of the information required to schedule calls, determine patient eligibility for supplies, call the patient and ask a targeted set of questions. Call results identify patients needing supplies or assistance with clinical issues.

All patient calls are documented. Those requiring follow-up are highlighted, allowing valuable staff resources to focus on addressing patient needs instead of leaving countless answering machine messages.

medSage brands each client application. Referral sources of the provider’s choosing may access their own patient data in a HIPAA-compliant and encrypted fashion, ensuring confidentiality.

Standard features included in the HCPro Software include:

Supply Order Management
Patient orders are presented for patients requesting supplies who are eligible based upon their insurance policy. The last mask shipped to that patient is loaded into the patient order.
Patient alerts
Patients with problems are highlighted for proactive provider follow-up. Typical notifications for OSA patients include: Compliance Mask problems Equipment malfunctions Insurance changes Symptomatic issues (morning headaches, daytime sleepiness, etc.)
Provider comments and notes
Patient management (preferred communication means, preferred time to call, etc.)
Comprehensive reporting
Reporting includes a detailed record of all communications and outcomes for every patient. All of the data may be filtered by insurance plan, payer, referral source, doctor and branch location.

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HCVoice

medSage developed its proprietary HCVoice voice recognition technology based on an in-depth understanding of the unique needs of the homecare patient. Depending on the disease state, a patient displays different speech patterns. A COPD patient, for example, tends to speak softly given their limited airflow. Our unique technology allows the patient to answer simple questions as if they were talking to their therapist directly.

HCVoice incorporates other critically important features which increase patient acceptance and compliance with the call:

1. The call is in a voice the patient recognizes, typically the provider’s therapist.
2. The calls ask questions and recognize answers in the patient’s own language.
3. Caller ID identifies the communication as originating from the provider.
4. The patient has the flexibility to complete the phone call at any time, simply by calling the number we leave on their answering machine.
5. The call content, while guided by medSage’s best practices, is tailored to each customer’s process and patient populations.

To hear an example call, please click the button at the top of this page.

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HC Analytics

The medSage solution gives customers detailed, objective data on their patients. Statistics, such as patient compliance by mask type and provider performance versus industry benchmarks, give our customers the tools to continuously improve their business practices, and the evidence of superior performance so convincing to referral sources.

Call outcome reports
Results from all calls are detailed with connection rate and order rate, as well as clinical metrics.
Mask substitution reports
The mask substitution report tracks which masks are being replaced, and by which alternative product.
Mask compliance reports
Patient compliance by mask type allows providers to evaluate which products result in the best clinical outcomes, data which can directly impact purchasing and patient care decisions.
Clinical outcomes benchmarking
Benchmarks include patient compliance, supply replenishment frequency, connections rates and clinical metrics.
Work process efficiency reporting
Customers can track key operational metrics by employee, including orders processed and issues resolved.