The Every Ancillary Medical Sales Podcast is a weekly podcast that covers all things Medical Ancillary. From ancillary products and equipment, lab testing and more as well as sales strategy and things impacting medical practices. The podcast is hosted by Michael Berg and Vivien Hudson. This podcast was released in January 2019 discussing what Mike and Viv see as the latest trends for 2019.
“It’s the beginning of the year and I talked to a lot of agents out there, a lot of affiliates who are looking at what’s hot for Q1. You and I got to talking and I thought let’s just do a quick one on our top trends, so I asked you to come up with your top three. I came up with my top three for what we think are going to be surprise hits for Q1. So do you want to start us off with number one on your list?
Yeah sure. So I think one of the exciting ones that I feel is going to be a big winner for this year is the Remote Patient Monitoring. The reason being that it’s going to be a big hit this year is because a physician no longer has to manage that particular program. It can be done through a third party provider, much in the same way as the Chronic Care Management Program has been managed. Now, I know Chronic Care Management has not been a huge seller or hasn’t had a lot of interest, but I think the Remote Patient Monitoring will generate more interest because it’s got a much bigger reimbursement that’s attached to it.
Also, if you look at that in context with what a physician’s doing, it’s really going to help improve their quality scores as well. I think that that’s something that’s going to be increasingly on physician’s radars as we zoom in on 2020 when I believe the full effect of all the past three years of data gathering comes to fruition with the full impact on physician reimbursements. Remote Patient Monitoring as a third party provider is going to make the ability for doctors to improve their quality scores and their bottom line at the same time, with very little to no effort out of the practice. So, I think that’s a winner for 2019. What about you Mike?
Okay, I’m going number one with the Liquid Ambien/Wound Care, only because I know there are some good things on the horizon right there and if you guys haven’t signed up with CSQ Bio yet, you’re missing out. They’re doing a symposium next month in Scottsdale. I know they still have a few openings. But, what I like about that solution is, I’m looking at things from the rep standpoint. Yeah, it’s pretty niche, but I’ve seen some of the results and it’s unbelievable how well this stuff works. I know, I hate to admit this, but Viv, I’m starting to get a little thin up top and I am going to get this done myself. I’ll put up the before and afters. It works phenomenally well, but what I like about this sort of product is this is an off the shelf product. It’s stored at ambient temperature, so the doctors are basically stocking this thing and ready to use it.
This isn’t like lab tests, where we wait three months to even figure out if you’re going to get screwed by the vendor. This is something that you get paid on pretty quick. The doctor is plopping a credit card down in order to purchase these things. It’s a combination of the two, where it’s really good science, it’s a very good product with really exciting stuff going on this quarter. Also you get paid quick, that’s important to put in your Ancillary bag, especially when you’re starting off new. What have you got for number two Viv?
I think that the Diabetic Diagnostic Tool kit is going to also be a big winner for this year. The reason that I think that is because physicians are increasingly looking for things that are going to help them assess and diagnose their patients and keep them in their practice. One of the successes that we had with 2018 was the Osteoarthritis Program. The reason that that was successful was, it generated revenue for the physician, but it also took something that was traditionally going outside of a primary care office, to a specialist and then that patient was then undergoing surgery or having injections outside of the primary care office.
Any tool that we can add to the primary care arena that helps a physician keep a patient in their office is certainly a winner. Every tool that we have in the Diabetic Diagnostic tool kit is going to be something that can give the doctor an assessment or a diagnosis within one to three minutes and give them a reimbursement. So it’s not taking up a lot of time and is paying them money.
At the moment in there, we’ve got the ABI. We’ve also got the Diabetic Neuropathy Device and we’re just about to launch the D- Eye, which is a retinal scanner and the Max Pulse which is a heart rate variability detector. So look out for that because that’s going to be a nice, expanding portfolio for you to talk to your doctors about in 2019. What else have you got Mike?
Well sticking with the theme of what’s good for the rep, we have a Fingerstick Allergy test that is just about to be launched. In fact, when this podcast is launched, this will be on the platform. So just look for “Fingerstick Allergy” would be what I would search by. That’s what the solution will be called on the Every Ancillary platform. I’ve seen a lot of these fingerstick tests Viv, and we’ve had some negative experiences with them, such as not being able to look at a specimen from the lab. So, a lot of the tests end up getting tossed in the garbage and not being able to bill. So there’s been some issues with fingerstick testing in the past, although the technology is somewhat there. What I like about the fingerstick tests that are on the market right now, these are working and the reason being is they use the same collection devices that the Clean Assure test uses, where it’s actually drawing a few drops of blood into a tube essentially, so you are getting serum that’s quantifiable, that’s not dry blood on a card and if the entire circle isn’t filled in … if you don’t cover it between 30 seconds and a minute, then the specimen goes bad.
We’ve seen all those terrible testing methods in the past, but I think they have it figured out now and it could be billed like regular allergy. As you know as a sales rep, allergy, blood allergy is a very, very high reimbursing test and you can make a real serious living just by getting some of those allergy clients. Being able to do it through a fingerstick, and not have a venal puncture, that’s a big deal to a patient too. Anything that makes it easier for the patient, makes it easier for the staff, makes it easy for the doctor, you got a winner right there.
Absolutely.
And what’s your last one Viv?
Well the other thing I want to add to allergy, like now is the perfect time to be talking allergy with your practices too because of the seasonal influx that spring is going to bring with it as well.
So the last program I have is Billing. I look at business – the blood flow in a business is cash. If you don’t have cash, then it doesn’t take long for your business to go pear-shaped. As a lot more protocols, procedures, quality measures, etc. put pressure on a practice, it’s becoming more and more important for a practice to improve its efficiency is when it comes to billing. Most businesses heavily rely on billing – this is where they’re getting all their money from. Very few practices rely on a strong cash base of business, so they’re looking to your commercial insurances, Medicare and Medicaid to get their money and with that comes often a … anywhere from two weeks to 90 days and sometimes longer lag before … they actually get paid.
Now if you don’t have a great biller in your medical office, then it’s going to have a major impact on the ability of the business to remain profitable and to be able to grow and remain competitive. I think that practices need to be increasingly aware of what’s going on around them and what is available to them so that they can remain competitive. They can’t do that if they don’t have the money and I know you’ve heard me say before Mike, that there’s no problem that a business has, that money can’t solve.
Amen.
If you can get some good cash flow going for a practice this is going to give them a cash bump up front because there’s a fair chance that their billing practices are not down to 1% or less of denials like our billing provider offers. So right there, off the bat, if they’re just going to a practice, ask them what’s the percentage of denials that they get. If it’s not 1% or less, you’ve got a conversation that you can have right then and know that that practice … by the time that they pay for the billing service, they are going to be way in front because they’re going to get more money than they ever have before because they’ll have effective billing.
Amen Vivien. Yes, and that also speaks to the theme of what I’ve been talking about with my other two solutions in that, as a sales rep, you know this first hand because you have your own account that you closed, this is a nice paying solution too. Granted, it’s not going to be through the roof, but it is nice, steady money that you can make off billing. It’s there for you every month. It’s a very good passive income stream and once you get this going, you’re not getting back-doored by a bunch of other sales reps. These deals usually stick for quite a while, so I love having something like that in my portfolio just to look at it like a stock portfolio. That’s like buying a blue chip stock or something. It’s safe.
So Viv, my last one here is Retail Pharmacy. We’ve talked about Retail Pharmacy before. This one just makes so much sense to me on so many levels. Now it’s a very niche product because this is really only for the big boys. Your five providers on up to safely do this program, but it just makes so much sense for the practice and I could see practice owners are looking for revenue streams. This is an unbelievable revenue stream. You’re looking at a five provider practice with 3,000 scripts a month I think as an example, which is about right. That’s roughly what it would take to get to a million dollars a year for that practice. That’s 80 something thousand dollars a month. That’s an unbelievable windfall of cash, plus the improvement to the value of their business. Being able to provide this at the point of care, it just raises the value of their entire business.
As you know Viv, you’ve owned businesses before, the value of your business is based on your receipts. So just increasing your value there, has an exponential effect on the value of your business. I’m no Warren Buffet here, I’m not giving financial advice. I sell medical ancillary’s, but what I do know, that’s not only going to have a positive effect in the present, but also in the future. For a sales rep, again, just like we talked about with billing, you give me two billing accounts and two retail pharmacy accounts, I’ll see you on a beach in Tahiti. If you’re looking for the easy life, get a bunch of both of those types of accounts going, because you really don’t have to do much as a sales rep on either of those to really make a lot of money and to have a safety with these accounts.
We’ve all dealt with accounts that pay great and then three months later, they go belly up. This isn’t like that. These doctors are locked in for at least three years with retail pharmacy. Most of them will re-up after the three years to continue the management relationship. So it’s a steady stream of income for now and in the future and one that I would definitely have in my bag, just for the sake of diversifying my portfolio and making sure that I’m pretty safe for the future, no matter what happens in all the other sectors.
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