Are You Using “Data Driven Care” Software?

There are several companies that are becoming more and more prevalent in Home Health.  These are sophisticated data mining and analyzing companies that promise you the ability to provide care based on data from many other providers.  These companies offer a “pandora’s box” of data that can let you know if you compare favorably to an “optimum.”  These data companies are in essence providing AI (Artificial Intelligence) to assist agencies.

My question is, what is the “optimum?”

Many agencies strive every day to provide care in the best way possible.  The goal of most home health providers is to improve the lives of people who require care at home in order to stay at home, all the while maintaining a profit that is sufficient enough to grow and compete in an ever-changing, challenging environment.

Can you utilize data to achieve the above goal?  The answer is 100% yes.  However, we are concerned that some may be using the data to make every decision in the care they provide.  These decisions are at a minimum allowing the data to decide number of visits, diagnosis coding and whether to take a patient under care at all.

The data companies that I have researched do not market their service to provide prescriptive care.  They offer the information as only part of the decision-making process.  This is not happening in some agencies.

We are seeing some agencies using the data to “pre-determine” cases they should or should not take with the only goal being optimum profit.  They are literally placing referral data into the system to screen for admission.

The use of AI data in this way is a slippery slope.  What happens to the patients that are deemed too costly?

We need to lean into all the tech available in home health to make sure we have every piece of information available to make the best decision for our business.  I fear we may be using some of this technology in a way that will hurt our industry in the long run.