Medtech territory targeting: ranking accounts by procedure volume
A medtech territory ranked by hospital size will systematically mis-prioritize, because bed count is a poor proxy for the volume of the specific procedure a device serves. Medicare publishes procedure-level volume, and using it changes the call order.
6 min read
Rank on the procedure, not the account
Medicare inpatient DRG data gives discharges, average charges and average payments by DRG by provider. For any device tied to an identifiable procedure family, this produces a direct ranking of hospitals by the volume that actually matters. Geographic variation data adds county-level utilization and cost intensity for outpatient and physician-administered services.
Find the individual clinicians inside the account
Medicare physician utilization identifies which clinicians perform the relevant services and at what volume, so the account plan names people rather than institutions. NPPES supplies taxonomy and affiliation; Care Compare and Provider of Services supply the facility structure they sit inside.
Example pull from RepVector
Retained procedure volume rows for a resolved market.
Medicare inpatient discharges by DRG for Ohio
| DRG | Discharges | Avg total payment | Avg Medicare payment | Avg submitted charge | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INTRACRANIAL HEMORRHAGE OR CEREBRAL INFARCTION WITH CC OR TPA IN 24 HOURS | 2,572 | 8,604.543 | 6,371.462 | 40,541.757 | Ohio |
| INTRACRANIAL HEMORRHAGE OR CEREBRAL INFARCTION WITH MCC | 2,157 | 16,368.784 | 13,520.861 | 68,742.318 | Ohio |
| SEIZURES WITHOUT MCC | 1,213 | 8,463.671 | 5,997.123 | 35,112.282 | Ohio |
| DEGENERATIVE NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDERS WITHOUT MCC | 1,088 | 11,226.874 | 8,853.214 | 36,931.504 | Ohio |
| SEIZURES WITH MCC | 820 | 16,854.455 | 13,959.855 | 69,568.789 | Ohio |
| TRANSIENT ISCHEMIA WITHOUT THROMBOLYTIC | 775 | 6,582.634 | 4,804.163 | 31,635.729 | Ohio |
First 6 of 100 retained rows. See the full field list for Inpatient hospital discharges and payments by DRG
Map the incumbent
Open Payments records manufacturer payments to clinicians — consulting, speaking, food and beverage, research — by manufacturer and by clinician, annually. In a competitive category this is the closest thing to a published relationship map for the incumbent. High-volume clinicians with heavy competitor payment history need a different approach than high-volume clinicians with none.
Check the capacity constraint
HCRIS occupancy and bed data indicate whether the account has physical room to grow the procedure. A high-volume, fully occupied facility is a different sale from a high-volume facility with capacity — throughput versus expansion.
What to take away
- Bed count is a weak proxy; DRG volume is a direct measure.
- Physician utilization names the individuals inside the account.
- Open Payments exposes the incumbent's relationship map.
- Capacity determines whether the pitch is throughput or expansion.
Put this to work
RepVector assembles this for a named market in one query
Describe the market and the offering. The datasets above are selected, resolved to your geography, pulled, scored, and returned as a ranked list with every figure sourced.
Related guides
- NPI data lookup for sales — what NPPES can and cannot tell you
NPI data lookup for sales starts with NPPES — the best free denominator in healthcare, and useless on its own.
- Hospital cost report analysis (HCRIS): reading a hospital's finances before you pitch it
Hospital cost report analysis (HCRIS) is public and audited — it tells you which hospitals can actually buy.
- Healthcare sales territory planning you can defend
Healthcare sales territory planning that starts from a denominator instead of last year's number plus ten percent.