How hard is it to be a hospice account representative?

[anonymous]

I know it is a competitive space. Help me out here.

What is commission per referral?
Seems like it is 75/25 base/bonus

Isn't a hard sell because all of these hospital and Dr offices at least in my area all have their own in house hospice service?

And the nursing homes/ assisted livings. They just want to keep these people alive. They don't care about quality of life. They just want you to have a pulse. Would they be sending alot of referrals to you since you are basically taking $$ from their facility's bottom line.

Seems like the best marketing plan would be to get a website where families contacted me directly?

Interviewing next week. Don't want to come off as pessimistic but I know there are at least 20 hospice places in my area. Also, isn't your team going to make ot break you? I am just getting the referral but if you have dumbass nurses and care takers that are just paid per hour and don't care, that could sink a referral relationship fast.

Someone in this space, please answer these questions. I would appreciate it.

 

[anonymous]

What is commission per referral?
Seems like it is 75/25 base/bonus
50-80 +5-10,000

Isn't a hard sell because all of these hospital and Dr offices at least in my area all have their own in house hospice service?
-yes, difficult. You must get the family to request your agency. You can also find zip codes the hospitals agency doesn’t service.

And the nursing homes/ assisted livings. They just want to keep these people alive. They don't care about quality of life. They just want you to have a pulse. Would they be sending alot of referrals to you since you are basically taking $$ from their facility's bottom line.
-make sure the SNF has the patient off of “skilled days”. Always notify the billing department that a patient has been admitted to hospice. Always always always - Check with rehab/therapy department before you admit to hospice.

Seems like the best marketing plan would be to get a website where families contacted me directly?
-If your company doesn’t have a website you should re consider.

Interviewing next week. Don't want to come off as pessimistic but I know there are at least 20 hospice places in my area. Also, isn't your team going to make ot break you? I am just getting the referral but if you have dumbass nurses and care takers that are just paid per hour and don't care, that could sink a referral relationship fast.
-yes you don’t many sales people if you have great nurses. Your clinicians should sell themselves. If your nurses have average to low pay, you should run. Find out your nurses tenure.

 

[anonymous]

I'm the administrator for a memory care community (assisted living). We are not against hospice as we know it is inevitable. We actually welcome the extra care that comes at no cost to us. For SNF, make sure you have a contract with them. For all senior communities, you need to market to their marketing liaison, the director of nursing and admin. Also, you need to know who the visiting physician, PA, and or NP is in each facility. They typically will steer patients one way or another depending on if they have an ownership stake in a hospice company. Most of them do, which stacks the deck against a lot of companies. If you do get a referral, make sure your other staff are good. If they screw it up, you may never get another chance. My hospice reps tell me that you only get one chance at a good death, which is true as morbid as that sounds. The breakdown typically occurs after admission when an idiot nurse or bath aid comes into the community. The problem with some of the nurses is they think they are playing God and do something stupid. With bath aids, a lot of them are very good but there is always one who comes in with some ghetto ass attitude, who gives our in house staff a hard time. They are promptly told never to return to my building as I do not tolerate that. They are guests in my building, not owners. And finally, be prepared to give referrals to the facilities. That is actually the fastest way to break in. If you are sharing referrals with them, they are more likely to share referrals with you. If you are not referring, do not expect much, if anything in return. Let me know if you have any other questions as I work with hospice companies all day long.

 

[grecareina]

I do NOT recommend Trinity Hospice. They do not offer a commission plan and they do not market. Every other hospice is trying to gain access to case managers and hospitalists. Trinity has carte blanche access to case management, facey case managers, HealthCare partners case managers, palliative care and hospitalists yet they ignore them. Not even relationship building

 

[grecareina]

I do NOT recommend Trinity Hospice. They do not offer a commission plan and they do not market. Every other hospice is trying to gain access to case managers and hospitalists. Trinity has carte blanche

 

[grecareina]

I do NOT recommend Trinity Hospice. They do not offer a commission plan and they do not market. Every other hospice is trying to gain access to case managers and hospitalists within the Providence hospital system.Trinity has carte blanche access to all of these people including Facey case managers and HealthCare partners case managers as well as palliative care. Yet they ignore them and don't even build relationships. With that kind of access they could double their census. Now let's talk about patient care. During the first nursing visit they frequently conduct this over the phone versus face to face. Additionally, they have no problem signing patients on that are actively dying. Not the kind of care I'd want for someone in my family. The core leader is a complete joke. He doesn't know hospice to save his life. I'm sure you can find a much more fulfilling job elsewhere. However I doubt you'll find it at Trinity.

 

[grecareina]

I do NOT recommend Trinity Hospice. They do not offer a commission plan and they do not market. Every other hospice is trying to gain access to case managers and hospitalists within the Providence hospital system.Trinity has carte blanche access to all of these people including Facey case managers and HealthCare partners case managers as well as palliative care. Yet they ignore them and don't even build relationships. With that kind of access they could double their census. Now let's talk about patient care. During the first nursing visit they frequently conduct this over the phone versus face to face. Additionally, they have no problem signing patients on that are actively dying. Not the kind of care I'd want for someone in my family.