With Medicare launching Hospice Compare earlier this month, hospice agencies across the country will be adjusting their marketing strategies. Now, Medicare publishes objective data on the quality of care at each hospice and compares this to national norms. Medicare has published comparison data for home health for more than a decade. Now would be a good time to review tips for using Medicare Compare data in your marketing materials. Home health and hospice providers should be hungry for ways to differentiate themselves from their numerous competitors. Agencies should check Medicare Compare data quarterly to see if they can find a positive story to tell about their data. 

The first thing to remember about Medicare Compare data is that the vast majority of referral sources will not go to Medicare.gov to research agencies. They will, however, trust Medicare data that is handed to them. This gives agencies an opportunity to frame the data in ways that focus on their strengths. Sometimes framing the data requires some experience and creativity. Get ready. Here are some of our secrets.

If you are discussing Medicare Compare data in a medium that is expected to have some shelf life (e.g. a brochure, care path flyer, or website), it’s helpful to put a date in fine print. That way, if the data changes in one of Medicare’s quarterly updates, you don’t have to discard your printed materials or stay constantly aware of what sales points are on your website. 

Twenty-percent of home health agencies have Medicare’s four-star rating or five-star rating. Every one of these agencies should be promoting this accomplishment with their doctors. When promoting the four-star rating, don’t state “four out of five stars.” The last part of that is negative, and you should focus on the positive. Simply state, “We have earned Medicare’s coveted four-star rating, a designation awarded to only the top 20% of home health agencies nationwide.” Then go on to list the measures where you are above average.

Another way to frame the scores positively is to see if there is a section where you are above state or national averages in 100% of scores. Then you can state that you lead the country (or state) in 100% of published measures related to patient satisfaction, preventing harm, unplanned hospital care, managing pain and treating symptoms (new hospice category), etc. Then list some of the topics included in that category. For home health, the rehospitalization and emergency-care measures are important enough to stand alone – no talk of categories needed. 

Don’t sell yourself short by misunderstanding how percentages work. When relaying percentages, it’s incorrect to state that the difference between 60% and 40% is 20%. The difference between 60% and 40% is 20 percentage points. Expressed as a percentage, it’s correct to say that 60% is 50% higher than 40%. Notice how much more important this sounds compared to the alternatives: “Compared to other agencies in the state, the patients you refer to us prove 50% more likely to get better at walking.”

Finally, use repetition. When you have an advantage or a fact you want referral sources to associate with your agency, use repetition to make them remember and value that fact. Repetition is hard to accomplish with just sales. When a liaison repeats something to a doctor, the doctor thinks “She just said that last time.” There are only two other ways to reach medical referral sources: mail and Facebook. When doctors see a blurb at the bottom of an otherwise unique newsletter (mail), they scan it and accept the repetition as a matter of course. When a doctor sees an agency’s ad on Facebook one to three times per week, he or she expects repetition; it’s advertising. Use low cost means to repeat your sales strengths to your doctors such as Brazzell’s Referral Doubling Strategy and Facebook Referral Source Marketing.