Dear Mr. Workman:
How’s it going? I
notice you’ve been CEO of Omnicare only since October 2012, so maybe you haven’t
found your sea legs yet.
(BTW: Are you the CEO or the interim CEO? Things seem to be in flux over there at
Omnicare, what with Joel Gemunder resigning in 2010 and then suing
the company for breach of his $146 million separation agreement, and then
his replacement, John Figueroa, quitting in June 2012, apparently because
Omnicare had to
pay $50 million [according to USAToday] “to settle allegations that it improperly dispensed drugs for nursing home
patients without a doctor's signed prescription”. Wow, three CEOs in three years. Looks like you’re in a tough business!)
But you’ll be happy to know I’m writing to you with an idea that
can save your company tens of thousands—maybe hundreds of thousands, even millions—of dollars a
year.
I hit upon this idea when, as the proxy who pays my mother’s
pharmacy bills (she’s no longer well enough to pay them herself, you
understand), I recently received one of those serious 1st NOTICE past due account letters from your company.
Here it is, with just a few details blurred out to protect
my mom’s privacy:
Did you look it over?
Did you see those spots I circled in red? I bet you already know what I’m going to
suggest Omnicare do!
That’s right: skip billing customers whose balance due is
$0.00.
Now, of course, I don’t know how many zero dollar past due
account letters Omnicare mails out every year, but I’m guessing it could be
more than a few. Why not get one of your
database gurus to write some code—I’m not a tech nerd, so I don’t know how the
lines would read—to have Omnicare’s servers only generate a past due account
letter when the balance due is greater than $0.00.
You could even play it safe and only generate a letter when
the balance due is greater than or equal to, say, $1.00. (I don’t know how much your dunning letters
cost to print and mail, but your database gurus could certainly ask and make
sure those letters don’t fire until those costs are fully covered.)
And no, I’m not going to stand on ceremony and demand a
royalty for implementing a sure-fire money-saving suggestion like this one. A lesser man might insist on 2% or 3% of your
annual savings as a kind of finder’s fee, but not me.
I bring this idea to your attention and ask only that you give
it your full consideration.
Thanks for listening.
Sincerely,
Richard Hartzell
Principal Rantiste
MindTheRant.com
