Making your paperless transition profitable and painless

As you make the move to a paperless operation, there are more and more tools and technology available today to ease the transition and accelerate the savings from shedding your paper-based system. In this three-part series, we’ll share the immediate advantages your operation can experience from solutions like document management, eFax and mobile delivery. Today’s topic: switching to mobile solutions to reduce delivery costs.

Even today, it’s tempting for HME providers to rely on what’s tried and true. Sure, your traditional paper-based system will get the job done but at what cost to your efficiency and profitability?

When you think about how many documents get lost between customer service, delivery teams and back-office staff and how many hours or days that missing paperwork is costing you, the case for going paperless isn’t hard to make.

Aside from the physical paper, a number of operational and overhead expenses are associated with this method. Not only do companies need to keep fulltime employees on hand to manually scan and file documents, but lost or missing paperwork can end up costing thousands of dollars in write-offs and overtime hours.

Next, think about how your paper processes are eating up efficiency. After each stop, delivery technicians must keep track of all paperwork signed by patients and then must present it to billers at the end of the day or week. Add in human error, and it’s easier said than done.

As documents go missing or get filed out of order, patient orders can remain pending for several weeks before being confirmed, resulting in a high day’s sales outstanding (DSO) number and low patient satisfaction.

These frustrations of a paper-based system are easily eliminated today with a mobile delivery solution (TransportACE and Transport Manager) to streamline efficiencies and significantly reduce unnecessary expenses. With software to electronically store all documents in one location, delivery technicians can automatically transfer forms to the billing department without information getting lost. This ensures orders are executed, confirmed and properly filed in a timely, cost effective manner. In fact, one provider saw an increase of 2,500 new confirmed orders each month and reduction of DSO by eight days.

And while the software provides operational and bottom-line benefits to the overall organization, it also streamlines the workloads of your individual employees. The lengthy process of securing patient signatures is eliminated with mobile delivery, and dispatchers and customer service representatives have complete visibility to field staff in real time and are able to shift their focus from tracking down delivery technicians to patients and referral sources.

Mobile delivery in action

For Gammie Home Care, the organization’s warehouse was becoming more of a paperwork storage location than storage for medical equipment inventory when President and CEO Paul Gammie decided enough was enough.

After choosing Brightree’s mobile delivery solution, drivers can capture data in the field for customer service reps to process in the office, resulting in a 75 percent reduction in scanning. And that’s not all.

“The delivery flow is better, and it’s easy to access information,” says Gammie. “When we have to pull up records and do chart reviews for accreditation, all of our data will be readily accessible.”

Ready for profitable and painless at your organization? Request a consultation or watch the video ►