INSIDE ACELITY: Profiles in Caring

THE Advantage Center serves Acelity US Advanced Wound Healing customers, providing customer service, order processing, billing, and collections for all orders related to KCI and Systagenix brand products. Over 950 people in the cities of San Antonio, TX, Charlotte, NC, and Dillon, MT support these efforts. It is the largest department in the company and has the most customer interactions.
Calls to the US call center are answered in San Antonio, providing support to hospitals and medical facilities, physicians, caregivers, patients, insurance companies, and internal sales teams. They handle new orders, order status inquiries, re-supply orders, receipt of information from insurance companies, billing issues, and many other general questions. The call center handles over 1.3 million calls a year.
Order processing teams work with facilities, physicians, caregivers, and insurance to qualify patients. Many times this may be complex to ensure the insurance companies fully understand the clinical situation to obtain authorization for the patient. This includes the sometimes difficult but critical process of transitioning patients from hospital therapy to home therapy. These teams also coordinate delivery and provide education around the product and billing to the patient. They process over 600,000 orders a year between facilities and private-pay orders.
The claims preparation, billing, and collections departments perform the complex tasks of preparing claims per the requirements of facilities such as hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, long-term care facilities, or the insurers’ requirements, including Medicare and Medicaid.
The Advantage Center has several areas, including quality control, payer relations, training, reporting, and analytics that support these primary functions.

What is your role at Acelity?

I am the Director for Customer Service. I am responsible for the National Contact Center (NCC), which provides customer service and support to Acelity customers in the US, and the order fulfillment team, which processes our Managed Care and Medicaid homecare V.A.C.® Therapy orders.

What is your favorite thing about working for Acelity?

The people. Everyone is focused on doing the right thing for the right reason. We have an incredibly tenured staff due to the culture that has been created here at Acelity. We know what we do each day matters, and we are driven to serve our customers.

What is the KCI Express® Program and how can it benefit customers?

The KCI Express® Program is a convenient, web-based system that allows you to manage orders for KCI V.A.C.® Therapy rentals and supplies. It works across multiple care settings, allowing you to use an integrated system to manage your patients’ wound treatment needs for both inpatient and transition settings.
KCI Express® Program features:
• Place and track orders for V.A.C.® Therapy rental units, supplies, and disposables
• Manage and track units, utilization, billing units, and purchase orders using on-demand reports • Configurable alerts and notifications (length of therapy)
• View product information and place orders directly from the KCI product catalog
• Request service, unit pick-ups, and therapy discharge
• View historical data and reconcile service dates
• Automate patient transitions from the facility to home
• Expedite and manage transitions using the V.A.C. Ready CareTM Program

Would you like to share any unique experiences you have encountered since you have joined the Acelity team?

My mother was diabetic and needed to have her leg amputated due to infection. V.A.C.® Therapy was used after the surgery and helped her with the recovery process so that we could get her started with her rehabilitation. Little did I
know that five years later I would be working for Acelity. I always knew my mother benefited from it, but now, I truly understand how many others benefit from V.A.C.® Therapy each year!

What is your role at Acelity?

As a Healthcare Intake Specialist in Ship Pending, my main role is to get our patients what they need, when they
need it. It is my responsibility to ensure the patient’s insurance is valid, that it will provide durable medical equipment coverage, and that their wound meets medical criteria for their insurance. That entails verifying benefits, reviewing multiple pages of clinical notes, speaking with the RNs, case managers, and physicians to obtain clinical information to seek authorization for V.A.C.® Therapy for our patients. Every order is different. Some orders come in and the wound information is clear cut; the insurance is easily verifiable, and we are shipping that patient’s order out within 20 minutes of receipt. However, we do receive the occasional order where due diligence is put to the test. Those are the fun cases though, because you learn something new in the process. My main objective every day is to assure a patient, who is going through a trying time and just wants to begin the healing process, there is no further delay or issues in the future of their care.

What is your favorite thing about working for Acelity?

Knowing I work for a company that provides a product utilized daily to save lives is a great thing. I also work with a pretty great team and that is present throughout the company. When you work for large companies such as Acelity, it is easy to get “lost” in the corporate aspect of the business. That isn’t the case here. Every department in Acelity is intertwined so you have the opportunity to interact with each other on a daily basis. It makes for a positive work setting. We have more of a “Mom & Pop” feel rather than that “corporate” feel at Acelity. The smiles and greetings you receive as you walk through the building show that.

How does an order get processed?

There are key elements we immediately look for when we receive an order: a valid prescription, insurance information, and wound information (the age of the wound, size of the wound and any present comorbidities that would prevent healing of the wound without V.A.C.® Therapy). If any of the required information is missing, it is our job to contact the case manager/RN, physician and, in some cases, the patient to obtain the information.

Once we have verified the patient’s durable medical equipment benefits with the insurance and reviewed the clinical documents to ensure the wound meets the specified medical criteria for the patient’s insurance (every insurance has medical criteria that must be met), we update all of the required information in the system, initiate authorization to the patients insurance, and the V.A.C.® Therapy Unit is processed for shipping.

In cases where it is found that a patient may have factors considered to be contraindications for V.A.C.® Therapy, we will work closely with the physicians, case managers, and KCI clinicians to find the best solution for our patients. We often encounter patients who have other underlying issues that may prevent V.A.C.® Therapy from being approved by their insurance. This could involve requesting additional lab work, clinical documentation showing the patient has undergone previous therapies that were not successful, or requesting documentation showing the medical necessity for V.A.C.® Therapy. Although these cases may take a bit longer to process, the additional time spent on the case can really make a difference in getting our patients access to V.A.C.® Therapy.

Do you have any unique experiences you’d like to share while you’ve worked with Acelity?

One of the most memorable cases that I have encountered was a few years back. An urgent release order was received for a patient who had undergone an amputation days prior. While he was in the hospital, his wife suffered a stroke and had taken a turn for the worse. The order came in late in the day, and I had to rush to verify the patient’s insurance benefits and process the order. I was able to complete the order and reach out to the Acelity field representative, who coordinated with the service team to ensure quick delivery of the V.A.C.® Therapy System. The patient was discharged within the hour of the order being submitted to us. A few days later, I received a call from the sales representative advising me that the patient reached out to him and informed him he was able to make it to his wife and be with her until she passed away, which was within hours of him arriving. He wanted to thank everyone involved for working diligently to get the V.A.C.® Therapy System to him and giving him that time with her. He took the time to reach out and thank us. That really meant a lot and showed the importance of what we do here.