Kudos to the clinical teams in all of our programs who are finding new ways to open access to care for patients in immediate need of our services. I see multiple examples of out-of-the-box thinking where two-day admission process, telehealth, and hub-and-spoke models are being successfully deployed to support admissions on demand. Old ways are giving way to a new BHG 3.0 and we are starting to see breakthrough markets where admissions are accelerating.
Patient admissions are only one part of census growth: patient retention is a 50-50 partner. Clinical excellence is key to our ability to retain patients, most specifically in the areas of days to reach a therapeutic dose, counselor visits per month, and a more aggressive patient outreach call-back program to reduce patients who leave AMA. In February, the percentage of patients reaching a therapeutic dose in 90 days exceeded 20% versus a company goal of 50%. In April, the percentage of calls made to patients who had missed a dose more than doubled.
We can’t overstate the importance of documentation and our ability to accurately note patient engagement and properly code clinical services. In May, we recorded the highest month to date with counselor visits and highest month to date with provider visits. And there is continuing improvement in the percentage of up-to-date patient treatment plans. Why do we drive to hard in this area? Let me share a cautionary tale about the consequences of inadequate documentation: Just last week a competitor in the northeast was asked to pay back more than $1.3M in Medicaid payments, and loose documentation hinders our ability to bill for our own services with third party payors. As healthcare providers, we understand that good documentation is part of good medicine. Keep up the good work.
Ben Nordstrom, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer