Healthy ERP Strategies

Continued

"Our patients are receiving care in a multitude of settings," explains Hill-Rom's Dennis. "As a corporation, we need to be able to provide our product in any care setting. The challenge is that each of these care settings requires interaction with a different 'customer'—each of those customers has different product requirements, different ordering requirements, and different reporting requirements. It can be quite complex."

For example, suppose a doctor writes a prescription for a patient for a special bed, respiratory device, or therapy surface for use at home, and the patient orders one from Hill-Rom. Unlike a hospital, which would purchase the bed, the patient will rent the equipment and have his or her health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid pay for it. That's where Hill-Rom's post acute care business comes in. Hill-Rom needs to not only deliver and install the device but also train the caregiver on the product and acquire and maintain appropriate documentation to bill the appropriate third-party payer (such as a patient's private insurance or Medicare).

"With third-party payers, there are multiple factors that come into play. The payers need to know what type of equipment a patient is receiving, what the options are, the patient's diagnosis, and more. The faster a medical equipment company can respond to the payer, the more likely that manufacturer is going to be recommended and used again and again," says Mychelle Mowry, vice president of Global Health Industries for Oracle. "If a company is slow to respond, it may end up losing market share to competive companies that are more responsive."

Getting to the Core

For Hill-Rom, JD Edwards is the core platform that's helping the company to reach out to new markets. By implementing JD Edwards across its lines of business and customizing processes for its specific needs, Hill-Rom has found a way to power its existing business while capitalizing on its burgeoning third-party payer business.

"We believe that market dynamics will drive more patients into post acute care settings, now and for a significant period of time, so it is vitally important for our organization to be able to grow and address that area effectively," says Dennis. "But in the medical field, the speed with which you can respond to payer needs dictates the amount of business that you will ultimately win. And with our existing system engineered for our traditional acute care business processes, we were not able to respond quickly enough to our third-party patients and payers."

For example, a third-party payer might have a specific program, where very specific products are needed for certain contracts, with very specific requirements for medical necessity, performance parameters, and pricing. Hill-Rom needed to be able to easily configure its systems and processes to do exactly that.

"We feel that the post acute segment of our business has tremendous opportunity, based on the dynamics of what's happening in our population today. We have a growing population that's aging and dealing with health conditions for much longer periods of time in different settings," says Dennis. "For Hill-Rom to continue to be competitive, it's important that we offer products broadly across the line—from high-efficiency, low-cost products to cutting-edge, high-efficacy products."