A commodity is an item that is interchangeable with other goods of the same type. Commodities are typically available from many sources and often aggregated into a pooled, homogeneous market because one company’s product is indistinguishable from the next. There is no name brand, no fancy packaging. It’s why we don’t ask which farmer grew the oranges used in our morning juice. They’re oranges.
CMS began offering quarterly Fee-for-Service (“FFS”) Medicare claims data in 2016. The LDS Standard Analytic File (“LDS”) is subject to a ~5-month delay and isn’t easily accessible, but it is available to approved organizations who distill the data into usable form and sell it. The first tools to market were game changers – luxury items and priced accordingly. Entire companies were built around this new insight into market utilization and referral patterns. Fast forward to today – the data remains relevant, but a slew of vendors release the same data on the same schedule. In other words, FFS referral analytics has been commoditized.
When a luxury item becomes commoditized, companies struggle to differentiate their product in a crowded market. In the case of LDS, they promote themselves as having special CMS access or “Innovator” status which, for the overwhelming majority of SNF stakeholders, offers little benefit. They imply their “Most recently available data” is synonymous with “Current data”… it isn’t. Some say they have insightful Medicare Advantage claims data… they don’t. These software vendors dress up (and price) the same Medicare LDS data as a luxury item when it’s become a commodity. If you’re paying for it, you’re likely paying too much!
z-INTEL is the industry’s most robust platform for SNF data analytics. We aggregate benchmarks from five distinct CMS “Data Domains”, then contextualize the information to deliver an unmatched level of insight into provider/market dynamics. Of course, z-INTEL includes national Medicare referral data, but it’s simply one point in a dynamic array of industry data. Regarding commodity pricing, z-INTEL includes comprehensive national SNF data for less than other companies charge for referral compilations from only a few states. The difference is profound.
The data is the same, so what’s the difference? They call their Medicare FFS referrals a luxury item, we call (and price) the same information for what it is… a commodity. Oh, and one more thing… we can actually expertly explain what all this data means. It’s what we do. Remember, Numbers are not Data. Context Matters.
Stop paying luxury prices for commoditized data. Check out z-INTEL today!
Medicare FFS Market Referral Data
Marc Zimmet
Medicare FFS Market Referral Data is a Commodity
A commodity is an item that is interchangeable with other goods of the same type. Commodities are typically available from many sources and often aggregated into a pooled, homogeneous market because one company’s product is indistinguishable from the next. There is no name brand, no fancy packaging. It’s why we don’t ask which farmer grew the oranges used in our morning juice. They’re oranges.
CMS began offering quarterly Fee-for-Service (“FFS”) Medicare claims data in 2016. The LDS Standard Analytic File (“LDS”) is subject to a ~5-month delay and isn’t easily accessible, but it is available to approved organizations who distill the data into usable form and sell it. The first tools to market were game changers – luxury items and priced accordingly. Entire companies were built around this new insight into market utilization and referral patterns. Fast forward to today – the data remains relevant, but a slew of vendors release the same data on the same schedule. In other words, FFS referral analytics has been commoditized.
When a luxury item becomes commoditized, companies struggle to differentiate their product in a crowded market. In the case of LDS, they promote themselves as having special CMS access or “Innovator” status which, for the overwhelming majority of SNF stakeholders, offers little benefit. They imply their “Most recently available data” is synonymous with “Current data”… it isn’t. Some say they have insightful Medicare Advantage claims data… they don’t. These software vendors dress up (and price) the same Medicare LDS data as a luxury item when it’s become a commodity. If you’re paying for it, you’re likely paying too much!
z-INTEL is the industry’s most robust platform for SNF data analytics. We aggregate benchmarks from five distinct CMS “Data Domains”, then contextualize the information to deliver an unmatched level of insight into provider/market dynamics. Of course, z-INTEL includes national Medicare referral data, but it’s simply one point in a dynamic array of industry data. Regarding commodity pricing, z-INTEL includes comprehensive national SNF data for less than other companies charge for referral compilations from only a few states. The difference is profound.
The data is the same, so what’s the difference? They call their Medicare FFS referrals a luxury item, we call (and price) the same information for what it is… a commodity. Oh, and one more thing… we can actually expertly explain what all this data means. It’s what we do. Remember, Numbers are not Data. Context Matters.
Stop paying luxury prices for commoditized data. Check out z-INTEL today!