Want To Sell? Is Your Agency Ready For The Store Window Or Is It Only Ready For The Clearance Rack?
October 5, 2021
5 Considerations Before Your Business Is For Sale:
- Clinical: Obviously this is a big one. Where are your outcomes right now? Are they better, worse, or the same over the last several years? Are your clinical processes solid or do things easily slip through the cracks in patient care? How well does your clinical manager know what is happening with patients? How is care coordination and how are service frequencies determined? What about efficiencies? How does documentation look? How many of your last 10 ADRs paid? If they didn't, what was denied? What about the accuracy of coding? How many days from admission until the RAP? These are things to firm up prior to ever considering a sale. Someone buying your agency needs to know that the process works.
- Financial: What is your current accounts receivable? How far out are you on collections? Is billing up-to-date? Have you lost reimbursement due to timely billing? If so, how much? What is the process from RAP through final billing? How often do you bill? Can you explain your costs in depth? What is your average mileage per clinician per day and per visit? Before you sell your agency, you need to be able to present the best financial picture possible to ensure you get the dollars the agency is worth. What is your average HHRG and visits per episode? Have you tried to decrease costs where it is possible to improve your bottom line?
- Marketing: What has your marketing plan been in the last 2 years? Are admissions up or is there a trend down? What has your marketing budget been? Is there really a true targeted marketing plan? Where do you focus your marketing efforts? What is your competition and how are they achieving market share?
- Personnel: What are turnover rates? How seasoned are your clinicians? What is the average length of time someone is employed with your agency? Basically, is your staffing volatile or stable. If it is NOT stable, can you explain what the problem is and how you are working to resolve it? What is your onboarding process? How do you provide oversight to employees and departments?
- Administration: Part of the changes in 2018 to the COPs dealt with the administrative oversight in agencies. How involved are you in running your business? Do you keep policies and procedures up-to-date and run your business accordingly? How does your report card look and what needs to change prior to selling your agency?
Buyer Beware:
If you are an established agency looking to acquire additional agencies, then some of the red flags brought up here today may not be an issue for you because you already have the infrastructure and administration in place. For others, the term buyer beware is important. Many of those situations mean that you are buying a business you want to keep rolling once the ink is dry on paper. If big problems exist, then you may be in way over your head. Make sure you have done a due diligence on the agency you look to purchase. Having someone look in-depth objectively at everything about the agency will give you a better plan moving forward and also help you determine how much the agency is actually worth.
Let Kenyon Homecare Consulting Help:
At Kenyon Homecare Consulting
, we help agencies prepare for sale and help provide the due diligences for individuals looking to purchase agencies. If you are on either side of that coin, call us today at 206-721-5091 or contact us online
to see how we can help you make the most out of your sale or your acquisition.
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HOPE Question and Answer Repository
Today, this article will look at little different than out typical articles. We all know the costs of losing employees and trying to hire and train new ones. It is exhausting and expensive. So, we think about our wages and benefit packages all the time. What can we do differently that makes people stay? We can’t change the job and we don’t want to keep people that don’t like the work itself. So, how do we acknowledge employees in a way that is valuable to them and that our businesses can afford to do? 5 Things To Consider About Employee Recognition At Your Christmas Party: 1. Years of Service: These can be based on milestone work anniversaries (5, 10, 15 yrs, etc.). If a person has been at your agency 11 years, you pull them up and acknowledge them in the group of employees who have been there at least 10 years up until the time they hit the 15 years landmark. This way longevity is recognized yearly. 2. Special Employee awards: Now, this may be difficult if your staff is very small, but acknowledge the employee who has gone the extra mile in the job they do. Tell the story. The employee needs to know when the employer is proud of the work that has been done. Consider a plaque or certificate. Don’t minimize the value of the employee having them to display. 3. Acknowledge all employees in the mix: Because we are a clinical industry, the administrative staff is often overlooked on day-to-day operations. Ultimately, don’t miss the chance to acknowledge the employee who was able to catch billing errors or collect on a large account. Staff doesn’t like to hear about money, but those types of collections keep Christmas bonuses in place! So, make sure the other staff knows the accomplishments of the finance department or the office manager that every caller loves to speak to. Don't ever forget the IT staff that is on call more than any clinical person in your agency! 4. Letters from the administration: Add a personal note to your staff either collectively or individually depending on the size of your agency. If you are larger, there are employees you don’t often see or get to talk to on a regular basis, so take the time so send a note with that Christmas bonus. 5. Consider the Christmas bonus: Listen, some of you can afford to do substantial monetary bonuses and that is fantastic. However, if you are not in that position, consider something in its place. Maybe small gas cards go with the letter from administration. With the cost of groceries, consider something that helps with the costs of daily living for employees. Big box gift cards in your area will always be used. You may do a lot of these things on a yearly basis to employees. All this being said, it doesn’t mean there aren’t reasons for acknowledgement throughout the year. However, your annual Christmas party is a good way to do it collectively. Between your annual party, write the individual cards to employees when you hear a patient interaction worthy of praise. Or, maybe you buy a gas card for the employee who has picked up extra shifts and always shows up on time. Ultimately, employees will feel valued. You will not regret the time, effort, and energy put into these efforts. Merry Christmas! If you want help with recruitment and retention strategies for your agency, please call Kenyon Homecare Consulting at 206-721-5091 or contact us online today.