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Gentiva

Quote




Anonymous said:
This company is on a National level, located in about 36 different states. Any feedback?
Click to expand...

I INTERVIEWED ABOUT 2 MONTHS AGO. HAVE BOTH CLINICAL AND BUSINESS DEGREES AS WELL AS MANY YEARS OF EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE IN BOTH FIELDS SIMLTANEOUSLY. I WAS THE MOST CAPABLE, QUALIFIED CANDIDATE.

THEY WERE INTERVIEWING FOR A NURSE TO DO MARKETING....THE AREA DIRECTOR WHO INTERVIEWED ME, TOTALLY BLEW OVER ME AFTER TELLING ME I WAS THE PERFECT PERSON FOR THE JOB. COME TO FIND OUT SHE LIED ABOUT THE REASON WHY SHE DID NOT HIRE ME, SAID I WANTED A 6 FIGURE INCOME AND WOULD NOT BUDGE. FACT WAS, I HAD MORE DEGREES AND EXPERINCE THAN HER AND SHE WAS WORRIED I NIGHT BLOW AWAY MY NUMBERS AND VIE FOR HER JOB. WHAT AN UNPROFESSIONAL ATTITUDE.
WELL, NOW I WAS HIRED BY THE COMPETITION, AND I KNOW MANY CONTACT WHO ALREADY TOLD ME THAT THEY WILL GIVE ME THEIR BUSINESS OVER GENTIVA B/C THEY HAVE COME NOT TO LIKE THEIR TACTICS AND WOULD LOVE FRESH COMPETITION.

I WAS NOT PLEASED WITH THE PROFESSIONALISM IN WHICH THEY CONDUCTED THIS INTERVIEW. I EVEN CALLED HER TWICE TWO WEEKS APART TO FOLLOW-UP AND SHE DID NOT EVEN HAVE THEY COURTESY TO RETURN MY PHONE CALL.

JUST WAIT TILL SHE SEES ARE UMBERS OF HER PEOPLE DROP IN IN THE NEAR FUTURE....
 




Anonymous said:
I INTERVIEWED ABOUT 2 MONTHS AGO. HAVE BOTH CLINICAL AND BUSINESS DEGREES AS WELL AS MANY YEARS OF EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE IN BOTH FIELDS SIMLTANEOUSLY. I WAS THE MOST CAPABLE, QUALIFIED CANDIDATE.

THEY WERE INTERVIEWING FOR A NURSE TO DO MARKETING....THE AREA DIRECTOR WHO INTERVIEWED ME, TOTALLY BLEW OVER ME AFTER TELLING ME I WAS THE PERFECT PERSON FOR THE JOB. COME TO FIND OUT SHE LIED ABOUT THE REASON WHY SHE DID NOT HIRE ME, SAID I WANTED A 6 FIGURE INCOME AND WOULD NOT BUDGE. FACT WAS, I HAD MORE DEGREES AND EXPERINCE THAN HER AND SHE WAS WORRIED I NIGHT BLOW AWAY MY NUMBERS AND VIE FOR HER JOB. WHAT AN UNPROFESSIONAL ATTITUDE.
WELL, NOW I WAS HIRED BY THE COMPETITION, AND I KNOW MANY CONTACT WHO ALREADY TOLD ME THAT THEY WILL GIVE ME THEIR BUSINESS OVER GENTIVA B/C THEY HAVE COME NOT TO LIKE THEIR TACTICS AND WOULD LOVE FRESH COMPETITION.

I WAS NOT PLEASED WITH THE PROFESSIONALISM IN WHICH THEY CONDUCTED THIS INTERVIEW. I EVEN CALLED HER TWICE TWO WEEKS APART TO FOLLOW-UP AND SHE DID NOT EVEN HAVE THEY COURTESY TO RETURN MY PHONE CALL.

JUST WAIT TILL SHE SEES ARE UMBERS OF HER PEOPLE DROP IN IN THE NEAR FUTURE....
Click to expand...


Just curious, would love to know who you IV'ed with and what state. I was also interviewing with Gentiva and they told me I had the job as well. This woman I interviewed with was a stone face, cold person and the guy that was over her was even worse. I also accepted a job with a direct competitor and I must say, the way they treated me has certainly modivated me in the field for their competition!

PS...how do you like HHA so far? I have many yrs of experience in the medical field and medical sales, this is a first for me in this area, but I have done medical "service" sales before.
 




If the two of you interviewed in the Southwest Region consider yourself lucky you did not get the job, Gentiva is almost non-existent in my area, do not know the lady but the Regional VP of Sales is an uneducated over his head moron.
 




Anonymous said:
If the two of you interviewed in the Southwest Region consider yourself lucky you did not get the job, Gentiva is almost non-existent in my area, do not know the lady but the Regional VP of Sales is an uneducated over his head moron.
Click to expand...



For me it has been last year when I interviewed with them and I can't think of the guys name, but he was from the North I think around DC area? Not sure. But he was rude and his interviewing skills substandard.
 




Anonymous said:
Just curious, would love to know who you IV'ed with and what state. I was also interviewing with Gentiva and they told me I had the job as well. This woman I interviewed with was a stone face, cold person and the guy that was over her was even worse. I also accepted a job with a direct competitor and I must say, the way they treated me has certainly modivated me in the field for their competition!

PS...how do you like HHA so far? I have many yrs of experience in the medical field and medical sales, this is a first for me in this area, but I have done medical "service" sales before.
Click to expand...

Southwest region......never did hhc before, but different. still not sure if it is my cup of tea but will give it a shot.....

seems like too many docs are politically connected with a hh agency and won't give you time of day!!
harder to get past the gate keeper than it was with pharma.....
 
















Anonymous said:
Southwest region......never did hhc before, but different. still not sure if it is my cup of tea but will give it a shot.....

seems like too many docs are politically connected with a hh agency and won't give you time of day!!
harder to get past the gate keeper than it was with pharma.....
Click to expand...

I disagree. It is much easier to get past the gatekeeper than in pharma; or it is for me. trust me, it is the company you work for, not you!
 








I am considering gentiva, but I Am looking for pay in the 80 to 90 range... Where did you hear of 50's???? I wont work for less than 80k and that is what they were telling me.... I think 80k is low, it is the least that I would ever work for....

What state are you in? Of course some states pay less based on cost of living and all that. I am in a higher cost of living city, so that might play into it, but I am curious though what state or city you are in..

Thanks..
 




Anonymous said:
For me it has been last year when I interviewed with them and I can't think of the guys name, but he was from the North I think around DC area? Not sure. But he was rude and his interviewing skills substandard.
Click to expand...

Anyone considering a career in home health is either a 6 month degree LPN or a dumbass 2 year RN. Educated people do not take these jobs, unless your in some po dunk town and cant do any better.
 




I transitioned to Gentiva after being laid off in pharma. I wanted to remain in health related sales and had been out of work for a while. I took the position and figured it should work out well and be a good fit. Boy I was wrong but I will share what I have learned and will alert you to any opinion VS fact.


HOME HEALTH CARE SALES 101---

Your goal is to get referrals. You will call on skilled nursing facilities-SNF , assisted living facitlies--ALF, independent facitlies and a few doctor offices. Your points of contact will be Dir of Therapy, Dir of Nursing, Activities Director. Your goal with a SNF is to talk with them and convince them of your value over the competition and get them to refer patients who are being discharged to you.

In an assisted living facitliy the goal is to have the activity dir to make note of the residents who might need services from you and to contact you about them. With an ind facility you are doing a lot of face time so that when they do need you they will call you and not some other company.

The best deal is to get Medicare referrals. These referrals are gold and everyone wants them because home health services --occupational, physical, speech therapy, home health aide, social workers etc-- are billed part A. That means there is no out of pocket expense to the patient. That is a huge selling point. Outside of that there will be many patients who have one of the Medicare HMO's. Those are not gold because the HMO's put a lot of restrictions on the type and length of treatments allowed. Sometimes they are not profitable for a home health company to take.

Home health is run on a week to week basis regarding the referrals. I mean that you will be given a goal for the referrals you need to produce each week. It is a hard number. Miss that number and you will hear about it. It may start off low 5 and over time creep up.

Now you are thinking-- who can't make 5 referrals a week. Ha ha ha!! The turn over in the industry is huge. So if you can, always find out why the previous rep left or was run out on a rail.

Here is what can impact your ability to get referrals---

a. The insurances the company accepts.
Everyone wants Medicare and the facility dirs are aware of this. But they can't funnel everything to you. So when they call your co. with a referral, does your company accept that Medicare HMO plan? You need to know the area. If there is a ton of John Deere ins running around and your comp doesn't accept it, RUN.

Just like docs, these places want to make one call and have all of their issues solved.

Just know that even if you accept ABC insurance, there will be some times that a client calls to give you a referral and your company still can't take it because they don't have the clinicians to send out on the case.

This affects your check.

SIDE NOTE-- Let's talk about pay. I only know Gentiva on this one. The base pay is around $55 to $65k. Additionally you get paid $60 for every Medicare referral and $15 for non Medicare referral OVER YOUR GOAL . The bonus pay out is monthly.

If your goal is an avg of 5 referrals/week, then you start getting paid at referral #6.
Week 1-- 5 ref; Week 2--3 ref Week 3 -- 8 ref Week 4 -- 6 refs = 22 referrals in the month.
You would get paid a bonus for 2 referrals.

No company cars at most. Usually a car allowance and mileage reimbusement.
At Gentiva the car allowance is $300 and it is taxed.
Cell phone reimbursement: $75/ month
Mileage: 12.5 cents per mile. As gas increased they did institute a temp increase that at one point was 20.5 cents.

Health Insurance-- I thought it was high. But I don't know much about this because we used my husbands. When I read it it appeared to be like most others-- choose the deductible type or co pay type.

Entertainment: Gentiva $350/month. If you are really getting a lot of referrals they do tend to look past that if you go over.

They like everyone have trinket and trash you can order to give away at the facilities.

Know this is not pharma--
This industry is not flush with cash. So their ability to hire more clinicans is directly tied to the number of referrals you get each week. It is literally run on a week to week basis. Do you like living check to check? I didn't think so.

There is seldom any grace given even when you missed your goal because they couldn't take a referral because they didn't have the staff.


Back to the topic-- What affects your ability to get referrals---

b. Prior relationships.
Know that people in this industry often have a lot of tenure and know lots of people. They went to nursing/PT school together etc. They worked for Dr. Fred. They used to work for Flower Valley Skilled Nursing etc.

If your company doesn't have these relationships. RUN!! It may take you longer than they give you for you to build the relationship and start getting referrals.

I think you already know there are docs who only visit nursing homes, these docs have relationships too. So if you have Dr. Fred who goes to 5-6 snf's and he is the medical director for Mediri Home Health, you can bet that at each of those facitlies Mediri gets most of the referrals.

I think you can see that there won't be much hope there. But if 3 of those snf's have the largest volume of discharges -- you may be sunk. Just investigate.

c. Ability to differentiate
The home health market is so fragmented it is unbelievable. Check to see if your state if a 'certificate of need state' if so, that is a much better deal for you. Because there the state requires that before a home health company open that they demonstrate there is a need for them. Thusly this limits the number of home health companies in your market.

In states that are not cert of need, any Joe Blow can and will open a home health company. You will compete with those companies as well because no one opens a company unless they think they have the contacts to be successful.

d. Doctor perception
Docs have so much on their plate they really they don't get into all of the nitty gritty with home health. It is a much longer selling cycle to convince a doc to differentiate and choose your copmany over ABC home health.

Even if your company develops a super therapy that supercedes all others it will be a matter of months before the competitors are claiming the exact same thing.

e. Hospital competition
Do the major hospitals in your area have their own home health companies? RUN!! They will canabalize most of the business because most docs are owned by the hosp, and they will send their referrals back to the hospital. You will be fighting with the remaining 82 competitors for crumbs!!

Basically the hosp could be competition that you can't overcome.

Check it out. Ask around. This information is not hard to find. Go to SNFs and ALFs in your area and ask the Dir of Nursing their opinion. They will readily give it.

Caveat 1: Just like everywhere else-- your manager determines your success. My manager was horrible. Frankly I should have quit on the first day as it was that apparent. But being out of work, how can you just quit a job? So interview your manager. Or it you have to take it regardless of the manager, don't be delusional-- continue looking.


This is all I can think of now. I hope this objectively helps. If I had to do it again, I would because I was out of work. But you now know more than I could have ever known so you will be able to make a better decision for you and your family.

Take care and Merry Christmas!



I just found this on the matter of certificate of need. Was published July 2008

http://www.homehealthcarebrokers.com/certificate-of-need-states-con-state-reference/

The following states are Certificate of Need states with respect to home health services. A Certificate of Need program is a state-administered program designed to restrain health care facility costs and to allow coordinated planning of new facilities.

Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
Georgia
Hawaii
Kentucky
Maryland
Mississippi
Montana
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vermont
Washington
West Virginia
District of Columbia

If you live in one of these states you may have a better go of it. But you still need to check the other areas I mentioned above just to be sure.
 








I just interviewed (round 1) in the midwest. They are supposed to be getting down to the final two in a couple of days. I heard through the grapevine that they have had a tough time with reps in this area. I still have another job and reading the above post was an eye opener. There is a ton of hospital competition in this area, the information the above poster put out was good information, if I get called back for the final interview, I will be grilling them for answers. No one wants to jump into a no win situation.
 








Anonymous said:
I transitioned to Gentiva after being laid off in pharma. I wanted to remain in health related sales and had been out of work for a while. I took the position and figured it should work out well and be a good fit. Boy I was wrong but I will share what I have learned and will alert you to any opinion VS fact.


HOME HEALTH CARE SALES 101---

Your goal is to get referrals. You will call on skilled nursing facilities-SNF , assisted living facitlies--ALF, independent facitlies and a few doctor offices. Your points of contact will be Dir of Therapy, Dir of Nursing, Activities Director. Your goal with a SNF is to talk with them and convince them of your value over the competition and get them to refer patients who are being discharged to you.

In an assisted living facitliy the goal is to have the activity dir to make note of the residents who might need services from you and to contact you about them. With an ind facility you are doing a lot of face time so that when they do need you they will call you and not some other company.

The best deal is to get Medicare referrals. These referrals are gold and everyone wants them because home health services --occupational, physical, speech therapy, home health aide, social workers etc-- are billed part A. That means there is no out of pocket expense to the patient. That is a huge selling point. Outside of that there will be many patients who have one of the Medicare HMO's. Those are not gold because the HMO's put a lot of restrictions on the type and length of treatments allowed. Sometimes they are not profitable for a home health company to take.

Home health is run on a week to week basis regarding the referrals. I mean that you will be given a goal for the referrals you need to produce each week. It is a hard number. Miss that number and you will hear about it. It may start off low 5 and over time creep up.

Now you are thinking-- who can't make 5 referrals a week. Ha ha ha!! The turn over in the industry is huge. So if you can, always find out why the previous rep left or was run out on a rail.

Here is what can impact your ability to get referrals---

a. The insurances the company accepts.
Everyone wants Medicare and the facility dirs are aware of this. But they can't funnel everything to you. So when they call your co. with a referral, does your company accept that Medicare HMO plan? You need to know the area. If there is a ton of John Deere ins running around and your comp doesn't accept it, RUN.

Just like docs, these places want to make one call and have all of their issues solved.

Just know that even if you accept ABC insurance, there will be some times that a client calls to give you a referral and your company still can't take it because they don't have the clinicians to send out on the case.

This affects your check.

SIDE NOTE-- Let's talk about pay. I only know Gentiva on this one. The base pay is around $55 to $65k. Additionally you get paid $60 for every Medicare referral and $15 for non Medicare referral OVER YOUR GOAL . The bonus pay out is monthly.

If your goal is an avg of 5 referrals/week, then you start getting paid at referral #6.
Week 1-- 5 ref; Week 2--3 ref Week 3 -- 8 ref Week 4 -- 6 refs = 22 referrals in the month.
You would get paid a bonus for 2 referrals.

No company cars at most. Usually a car allowance and mileage reimbusement.
At Gentiva the car allowance is $300 and it is taxed.
Cell phone reimbursement: $75/ month
Mileage: 12.5 cents per mile. As gas increased they did institute a temp increase that at one point was 20.5 cents.

Health Insurance-- I thought it was high. But I don't know much about this because we used my husbands. When I read it it appeared to be like most others-- choose the deductible type or co pay type.

Entertainment: Gentiva $350/month. If you are really getting a lot of referrals they do tend to look past that if you go over.

They like everyone have trinket and trash you can order to give away at the facilities.

Know this is not pharma--
This industry is not flush with cash. So their ability to hire more clinicans is directly tied to the number of referrals you get each week. It is literally run on a week to week basis. Do you like living check to check? I didn't think so.

There is seldom any grace given even when you missed your goal because they couldn't take a referral because they didn't have the staff.


Back to the topic-- What affects your ability to get referrals---

b. Prior relationships.
Know that people in this industry often have a lot of tenure and know lots of people. They went to nursing/PT school together etc. They worked for Dr. Fred. They used to work for Flower Valley Skilled Nursing etc.

If your company doesn't have these relationships. RUN!! It may take you longer than they give you for you to build the relationship and start getting referrals.

I think you already know there are docs who only visit nursing homes, these docs have relationships too. So if you have Dr. Fred who goes to 5-6 snf's and he is the medical director for Mediri Home Health, you can bet that at each of those facitlies Mediri gets most of the referrals.

I think you can see that there won't be much hope there. But if 3 of those snf's have the largest volume of discharges -- you may be sunk. Just investigate.

c. Ability to differentiate
The home health market is so fragmented it is unbelievable. Check to see if your state if a 'certificate of need state' if so, that is a much better deal for you. Because there the state requires that before a home health company open that they demonstrate there is a need for them. Thusly this limits the number of home health companies in your market.

In states that are not cert of need, any Joe Blow can and will open a home health company. You will compete with those companies as well because no one opens a company unless they think they have the contacts to be successful.

d. Doctor perception
Docs have so much on their plate they really they don't get into all of the nitty gritty with home health. It is a much longer selling cycle to convince a doc to differentiate and choose your copmany over ABC home health.

Even if your company develops a super therapy that supercedes all others it will be a matter of months before the competitors are claiming the exact same thing.

e. Hospital competition
Do the major hospitals in your area have their own home health companies? RUN!! They will canabalize most of the business because most docs are owned by the hosp, and they will send their referrals back to the hospital. You will be fighting with the remaining 82 competitors for crumbs!!

Basically the hosp could be competition that you can't overcome.

Check it out. Ask around. This information is not hard to find. Go to SNFs and ALFs in your area and ask the Dir of Nursing their opinion. They will readily give it.

Caveat 1: Just like everywhere else-- your manager determines your success. My manager was horrible. Frankly I should have quit on the first day as it was that apparent. But being out of work, how can you just quit a job? So interview your manager. Or it you have to take it regardless of the manager, don't be delusional-- continue looking.


This is all I can think of now. I hope this objectively helps. If I had to do it again, I would because I was out of work. But you now know more than I could have ever known so you will be able to make a better decision for you and your family.

Take care and Merry Christmas!



I just found this on the matter of certificate of need. Was published July 2008

http://www.homehealthcarebrokers.com/certificate-of-need-states-con-state-reference/

The following states are Certificate of Need states with respect to home health services. A Certificate of Need program is a state-administered program designed to restrain health care facility costs and to allow coordinated planning of new facilities.

Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
Georgia
Hawaii
Kentucky
Maryland
Mississippi
Montana
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vermont
Washington
West Virginia
District of Columbia

If you live in one of these states you may have a better go of it. But you still need to check the other areas I mentioned above just to be sure.
Click to expand...

I've veiwed various corporate board threads on cafepharma, this is by far one of the most informative responses I have read. I have to commend you for your insight and the time invested for responding to the question. Thank you for your honest input.
 




Currently, I'm amongst the wonderful ranks of the individuals who were subject to territory realignments. I've over 15 years experience in biopharmaceuticals, including 7 years selling complex, buy-and-bill infusible biologics. During my tenure, I've won numerous national awards, etc.

In my area the biopharma market has been tough going as of late--not many openings. As such, I've been trying to enter another area of medical sales--device, equipment, service, etc.? Frustratingly, I seem to make it through the interview process until the decision is between two candidates and I've lost out to the candidate who has device or equipment experience. Anyhow, I just got a call from Gentiva. Although, the money does sound about half of my previous earnings, I am considering if the position would be stimulating and interesting enough to take on the challenge.

Regardless, I do want to take a moment to commend the poster who clearly spelled out their experience. Most of Cafepharma is full of useful complaining--and it's almost impossible to tell whether the comments are coming from reps with the company or competitors. As such, I really appreciate the time and effort the poster put into their Gentiva's and industry experience. It was most useful and utmost professional!
 




If that's your experience, and you cannot find a suitable position---I hear you. Take the Gentiva job if it's offered and look for another job while you are there. There are alot of brain dead, undeducated, used car salesman type uneducated people at Gentiva. It's the nature of the home health industry. Keep that in mind before you accept. Trust me, I have been in your position.
 




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