HME Business Podcast: Recent Episodes
David Kopf
The HME Business podcast offers an insider’s view into the home medical equipment (HME) industry. Host David Kopf, the executive editor of HME Business magazine and HME-business.com, examines key HME news, trends and developments, and interviews various experts to find out how HME provider owners and operators can run efficient, profitable and growing businesses while providing service and care that cements lasting patient and referral relationships. If you’re an HME industry professional, and you want to stay in the loop about smart business strategy and tactics, this podcast will become a regular listen for you.
For this episode of the HME Business podcast, we spoke with Sandra C. Canally, the founder and CEO of The Compliance Team.
During the conversation, we discussed differences between DMEPOS retailers and suppliers, accreditation and certification, and more! Canally additionally shared some of the major highlights from The Compliance Team’s 2024 while looking ahead at the organization’s future.
Thanks for listening!
An efficient resupply system can improve the patient experience, support outstanding relationships with patients and referral sources, and provide additional revenue for home medical equipment (HME) suppliers. But finding the optimal resupply partner — one with an efficient resupply model that’s also secure — can be challenging. Mike Lorenz of Brightree discusses how a successful resupply system can elevate an HME business, and the importance of simultaneously emphasizing security.
As crucial professionals in the healthcare continuum, home medical equipment (HME) providers must keep evolving and embracing change to better serve their patients. Matt Gruskin, Chief Operating Officer of the Board of Certification and Accreditation (BOC), discusses the value of education for the HME provider, and how better-educated providers can support better outcomes for consumers, referral partners and payers.
Quality improvement is an integral part of achieving Home Medical Equipment accreditation and maintaining it. But how is quality improvement defined for an HME business, and what role should it play in a provider’s daily routine? Sandra C. Canally, RN, CEO and founder of The Compliance Team, discusses quality improvement best practices that can benefit providers all year long… and how to get started.
An HME supplier’s success depends on building a team of fully trained, highly professional, and dependable staffers that are experts at what they do. But needing to frequently recruit, train, and onboard new staffers is costly in both time and productivity. In this podcast, Todd Usher of Tactical Back Office discusses remote staffing solutions — and the questions suppliers should ask to make sure they’re finding the best possible staffing partner.
Many HME providers are opting to outsource their revenue cycle management or parts of their RCM for a lot of different reasons. Most of those reasons are focused on optimizing business performance, but there’s one more reason that might not immediately springs to mind: data security. Enida Mimani, director of Healthcare Solutions for Analytix Solutions explains how outsourcing RCM can help secure protected health information for HME businesses and their patients.
Sponsored By Analytix Healthcare Solutions
The owners, operators and management of HME providers are currently contending with a tricky problem: There are certain roles within the HME business that require specialized knowledge, professionalism and dedication, yet the current job market means high employee turnover, transition and retraining. How can providers get the best talent for the job—and keep it? Jim Knight, the CEO of medical billing company ACU-Serve, has been solving problems like this in home healthcare for more than 30 years and joins the podcast to share his insights.
Sponsored By ACU-Serve
HME businesses are facing staffing challenges that are impacting both their top and bottom lines, but there are outsourcing solutions that can help them. However, the key is to do it right, which means measurement and analytics. What are the metrics they should use to track and manage their performance? Sunil Krishnan, Vice President of Revenue Cycle Management at HME software company Brightree joins the podcast to share his expertise and insights.
Sponsored By Brightree
We’ve all heard of outcomes-based and value-based care and how that trend is impacting provider care and business operations for HME providers, but what about sales? How do providers win over key referral partner and payer relationships in that environment? HME sales expert Ty Bello, RCC, president and founder of industry sales and management coaching firm Team@Work Coaching says that HME providers need to start engaging in outcomes-based selling, and joins the podcast to talk more about what that means how providers can start implementing that sales approach.
Recent CMS audits of Medicare Advantage health plans uncovered roughly $12 million in net overpayments. Moreover, CMS said it was going to extrapolate the payment error rates across all Medicare Advantage plans to recoup an estimated $650 million. As a result, Medicare Advantage plans are now auditing the companies with whom they work—including HME providers. Audit expert Wayne van Halem, president and founder of the audit consulting firm The van Halem Group, discusses what this means for the industry and how providers should respond.
In less than two weeks, the industry will pack its bags to attend Medtrade East, which runs Oct. 24-26 at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center. This year marks some changes for the event before it moves to Dallas in 2023, and Show Director York Schwab joins the HMEB Podcast to discuss what’s new for Medtrade East. From a new hall, more exhibitors, a new schedule lineup, and revised educational offerings, there’s a lot to take in at the show.
Medicare accreditation goes much deeper than simply being able to bill Medicare as a DMEPOS supplier. In fact, accreditation has considerable strategic value for HME providers when it comes to differentiating themselves in their marketplace, uncovering new opportunities, and demonstrating their expertise to referral partners. Matt Gruskin. Matt, the chief operating officer of The Board of Certification/Accreditation (BOC), returns to the podcast to how providers can make the most of their accreditation and what they should expect from their Accrediting Organization.
Everyone HME provider knows that if you’re going to be a DMEPOS supplier, then you need to be accredited to bill Medicare. But what if you’re an HME provider that doesn’t supply Medicare? More specifically, what if you’re a retail provider and need some way to demonstrate your expertise to your customers? Sandy Canally, RN, founder and CEO of accrediting organization The Compliance Team, joins the podcast to discuss a brand new certification program for non-Medicare providers.
Running an HME or CRT business is filled with a dizzying array of complex workflows and unique business, funding and care protocols, practices and procedures. That’s why Bill Paul, who, as a one-time CRT provider, built a series of technology tools to help his business. Those tools went on to become the core of his current business, ATLAS Technology, where he serves as CEO. Paul and several of the ATLAS Technology team join the podcast to discuss the technology, telehealth, clinical care, and business services they now offer to HME and CRT provider businesses.
Ask any retail HME provider, and they’ll tell you that customer attitudes concerning the economy are impacting their buying habits. That’s not surprising, as monthly consumer sentiment data bears that out. Simply put, consumers are worried. So, how do retail HME providers manage those customer concerns during times of uncertainty? Sean Stapleton, CEO of MedGuard Protection Plans, joins the podcast once again to offer some strategies and tools that providers can employ to not only address those concerns but strengthen customer connections. Handled correctly, you just might create a customer for life.
Resupply plays a pivotal role not only in sleep apnea patients’ therapy compliance and outcomes, but in the health of an HME provider’s business performance as well. That said, sleep resupply requires managing an enormous number of details for each patient. That’s why automating the process is so essential. Mike Lorenz, vice president of Resupply at HME software company Brightree, joins the podcast to talk about how far systems for automating resupply have come, the results they’ve achieved, and how providers can implement these tools into their businesses.
Could Medicare finally fund seat elevation systems for power wheelchairs? For the first time ever, it’s looking possible. Medicare is opening its NCD up to review, which would mean a public comment period, and setting the stage for that was a virtual roundtable hosted by the National Council on Disability regarding funding the systems. Seth Johnson, the senior vice president of Government Relations for Pride Mobility/Quantum Rehab, joined the podcast to give us an insider’s view of the roundtable meeting.
Up until the Covid-19 public health emergency was declared, telehealth wasn’t at the top of the list of HME providers’ priorities. Now, telehealth has become the norm in U.S. healthcare. Dr. Scott Martin, the medical director of TeleHealth Clinical Evals, and Maxine Paul, the vice president of operations for TeleHealth Clinical Evals, join the podcast to discuss how referral partners and patients have rapidly adopted telehealth, how HME providers can leverage telehealth to improve care and strengthen referral and patient relationships, and the sorts of telehealth services their company offers to help HME providers save time and generate revenue.
On June 1 an armed assailant entered Tulsa, Okla.’s Saint Francis Hospital and opened fire, killing four people and injuring a number of other victims. How has that event impacted hospital security, and how might that in turn impact HME sales professionals? HME sales expert Ty Bello, president and founder of Team@Work Coaching, and security expert Ralph C. Jensen, editor-in-chief and content director of Security Today, join the podcast to share their insights.
The transition to the homecare setting represents an omnipresent challenge for anyone involved in post-acute care — and particularly for HME providers. Vijay Kedar is the co-founder and CEO of Tomorrow Health, a company that has created a system that helps HME providers, referral partners, payers, patients and their caregivers coordinate more seamlessly. Kedar joins the podcast to talk about the issues surrounding the homecare transition and how HME providers benefit from smoothing that process.
We’re familiar with protection plans in our personal life, but there are some strong arguments why HME providers should consider offering them to their retail customers. MedGuard Protection Plans, is now offering these plans to the HME industry, and MedGuard CEO Sean Stapleton joins the HMEB podcast to talk about how offering product protection plans can help increase retail revenue, strengthen patient loyalty, and benefit the continuity of care.
The world of HME is all about patient relationships — putting the patient front and center in the process. Maintaining patient relationships and maximizing patient engagement results in improved compliance and increased referrals. And it turns out the key to making that happen might be a lot more common than we realize. James Yi, the Director of Product Management over Digital Connectivity for industry software maker Brightree LLC, discusses the most effective approach to patient engagement and how to implement it.
VGM’s Heartland Conference is making its return as fully in-person event on June 13-15 in VGM’s hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, and is offering a lot of new features as well as familiar favorites. Conference Chair Jill Blaser visits the HMEB podcast to offer a taste of what’s in store with Heartland’s conference, expo and social events. From the hog roast to specialized conference tracks and a remodeled convention facility, there’s a lot to learn about. Bonus link: Prospective attendees can visit the 2022 Heartland Conference eProspectus.
Vertical integration is a term that gets tossed around in healthcare, but what does it mean for the home medical equipment industry, and what should providers know about the trend? Laura Williard of the American Association for Homecare explains the trend and how it might impact the industry and outlines strategies for how the industry and providers can operate in such an healthcare marketplace.
Have you been wondering about Round 2024 of competitive bidding? You’re not alone. AAHomecare’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Kim Brummett sat down with HMEB during this week’s Medtrade West event to discuss how the next round of competitive bidding might play out, what CMS might do, and where the program might be headed in the future.
HME industry advocates are currently focused on two pivotal legislative fights: advancing H.R. 6641 and working with Senate contacts on approaches to preserve the current 75/25 blended rate for non-rural, non-CBA suppliers beyond the end of the public health emergency (PHE). Jay Witter, the senior vice president for public policy at the American Association for Homecare explains why both efforts are crucial and how providers can help. Then he offers a sneak peek at the upcoming AAHomecare Update slated for Medtrade West on April 5.
With Covid-19 on the wane, Medtrade West is returning to Arizona’s Phoenix Convention Center April 4-6, and the show offers some new features and creative tweaks on existing show content. In this episode, Medtrade Show Director York Schwab pulls back the curtain on the upcoming event to offer a sneak peek at what the conference and exposition has to offer this year.
How well do you understand CMS’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for providers and suppliers? Are you sure? It turns out that, while the agency didn’t directly include DMEPOS suppliers and DME pharmacies, those businesses might still need to comply with the guidelines if they want to keep doing business with certain referral partners. Sandy Canally, RN, founder and CEO of accrediting organization The Compliance Team, has been studying the issue closely and joins the podcast to share her insights.
Covid-19 has forced a lot of change when it comes to respiratory services. How has the situation evolved for oxygen and respiratory providers and the clinical care team? John Medina, RRT, director of sales at CAIRE Inc., and David Lyman RRT, RRT-SDS, vice president of VGM Respiratory, join the podcast to explore topics such as new variants, telehealth, frequent of RT check-ins, the pandemic’s impact on other home oxygen patients and much more. This is a deep dive into an ongoing situation. Sponsored by CAIRE Inc.
HME providers initially got a brief break from Medicare claims audits during the Covid public health emergency, but after resuming audits, the HME industry will face expanded audit challenges in 2022. And Medicare isn’t the only source of claims audits, either. Audit expert Wayne van Halem, president and founder of the audit consulting firm The van Halem Group, discusses what providers can expect this year and how an upcoming webinar can help them.
Sleep therapy is all about reinforcing patients’ compliance with their care, and the primary way to achieve that lies in ensuring they have the right mask for them. Comfort remains king. But there are several patient factors that mask fitting traditionally hasn’t taken into account, but probably should have. Well a new technology, MaskFit AR, is trying to change that. Cox Tan-Ngo, the CEO of AR Medical Technologies, talks about how his company and its technology is trying to change mask fitting around the world.
For the past 18 months, only one trend has impacted the entirety of the HME industry, and of course, that trend has been COVID-19. Joining the podcast to discuss how the pandemic has affected accreditation for HME providers are José Domingos, the president and CEO of the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), and Tim Safley, the program director for ACHC. Both guests explain how their company responded to the public health emergency, how that influenced CMS, and explore how they—and the industry—continue to learn and apply ongoing lessons learned during the pandemic.
Staffing solutions are becoming an increasingly important part of how HME providers run their business. They let providers more nimbly expand and contract their staff based on referral partner and patient needs while pursuing new market opportunities. One new staffing solution is rtNOW, a company that provides telehealth staffing of RTs. Chuck Stadler Jr, the president and CEO of rtNOW joins the podcast to discuss his service and how it helps sleep and ventilator providers better serve patients while running more cost-effective, responsive businesses.
Equipment management sits at the heart of nearly everything HME providers do, but recent trends such as Covid-19 and the increased emphasis on infection control have made this fundamental business process all the more critical. Founder and CEO of the accreditation organization The Compliance Team Sandra Canally, RN, discusses what goes into effective HME equipment management, why it’s crucial from a business and care perspective, and how providers can optimize their equipment management.
What happens when your best employee isn’t exactly your employee? HME staffing firm Tactical Back Office was born out of an HME provider seeking a new way to create flexible, scalable teams for HME providers. The goal was to find staff that could be relied on to carry out back-office and front-office functions at top performance levels for the long haul. The result is what Tactical Back Office founder and CEO Todd Usher calls insourcing, and it’s something he’s developed into a growing staffing solution for his fellow providers.
HME providers and accrediting organizations share a common dilemma: Providers are trying to fill new and unique care segments as well as rapidly take advantage of market opportunities. They also face a constant flood change management challenges. At the same time, those providers still need to get accredited. So how do accreditation standards become similarly flexible to help providers remain strategic? Jackie King and Dan McPhilemy of Community Healthcare Accreditation Partners (CHAP) discuss how their organization has developed a new approach to bridge both worlds.
Sponsored by CHAP
Any sleep provider will tell you resupply is a critical component of patient care and therapy outcomes, as well as a fundamental element of their business performance. They’ll also tell you it is a costly and complex workflow desperately in need of as much automation as possible. Enter “no-touch resupply.” Michael Lorenz, vice president of resupply software for Brightree, joins the podcast to describe the technology behind no-touch resupply, how it radically refines workflows, and what kinds of business efficiencies and care benefits providers can reap through this innovation.
As the delta variant of COVID-19 makes a greater and greater impact on American healthcare, post-acute care and HME providers are really starting to feel its presence, particularly on the supply side of the industry. Spectrum Medical Supply CEO Steve Ackerman explains how, just as the delta variant is starting to impact post-acute care, HME providers’ costs have really started ramping up. What can be done?
While COVID-19 ramped up the need for telehealth and remote connectivity for both HME patients and remote and distributed HME workforces, the need for security HME providers’ data predated the pandemic. Jerry Dennany, Chief Technology Officer for Brightree, discusses the factors that have been driving the need for more remote security, the increasing number of healthcare data attacks, and how providers can take steps to secure their data both in terms of technology and business processes.
The year marks the big year for DMEPOS accreditation renewal for HME providers, and a major part of that process is the site survey. And, when it comes to those site surveys, there are some common pitfalls providers need to know to avoid. Matt Gruskin, credentialing director for the Board of Certification and Accreditation, points out regularly occurring site survey issues that can be easily prevented, and also discusses how providers can deal with corrective action plains, as well. If you want to have your accreditation ducks in a row, this episode’s a must-listen.
The return of Medtrade West also saw the return of the American Association for Homecare Update, in which HME Business’s David Kopf, as well as the audience, queried the association’s President and CEO Tom Ryan, along with Vice Presidents Jay Witter, Kim Brummett and Laura Williard, on a broad range of topics. For folks who couldn’t make the update, HMEB I circled back with Witter, Brummett and Williard to get the low down on some of the top line items they wanted to make sure providers had on their radar.
As U.S. healthcare emerges from the COVID-19 PHE, HME providers face five referral sales challenges that they must overcome if they want to succeed in the “new normal.” HME sales expert Ty Bello, CEO of HME sales coaching and consulting firm Team@Work, reviews those challenges and then outlines multiple ways HME providers can tackle each. If you’re looking for concrete sales strategies for the here-and-now reality of today’s referral sales market for HME, listen to this episode.
Sponsored by PlayMaker Health.
Brace yourself! COVID-19’s impact on U.S. healthcare might be fading, but not the patient demand. If anything, you can expect increased patient needs and a broadening set of requirements from your referral partners. Are you ready? Founder and CEO of The Compliance Team Sandra Canally, RN, is seeing some serious pent-up demand in the marketplace. Pair that with new services and capabilities that HME providers started offering to contend with the pandemic, and we could see the rise of what Cannally is calling the value-based HME business. What does that mean for you? Listen and find out.
HME businesses have adapted to a considerable number of changes during COVID-19, but what ones will stick around for the long haul? Tim Safley, the program director for the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) has been in an interesting position when it comes to helping providers integrate new policies and procedures into their operations and workflows. He talks about the major changes the industry has experienced, such as infection control and telehealth, what ones will last, and what things we probably should have been doing all along.
Sponsored by Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC)
When the COVID-19 pandemic, one sector of post-acute care that got hit hard was complex rehab, but there was an silver lining: CMS and other payers relaxed the guidelines around telehealth as a means to carrying out patient evaluations. One company that has been at the fore of that technology is TeleHealth Clinical Evals, and its CEO, Bill Paul, joins the podcast to talk about the importance of telehealth for CRT, the technology and tools involved, the problems they solve, and the benefits telehealth brings to patients and providers alike.
Worried about audits? Maybe you should be. After hitting pause on claims audits during the COVID-19 PHE, CMS surprised everyone last fall by announcing it would resume those audits. Well now CMS has started restarting audits and audit expert Wayne van Halem, president of The van Halem Group, joins the podcast to discuss how CMS’s resumption of TPE, RAC and other audits programs is progressing, as well as what expanding resources at OMHA might mean or HME providers.
One segment of HME that has typified the entire industry’s experience with handling the disease has been sleep therapy. Now that we are in the middle of the vaccine rollout, sleep providers — like all HME providers — are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. What happens next? Gary Sheehan, MBA, CEO of Spiro Health, who has shared his insights and perspectives during the pandemic, rejoins the podcast to discuss how sleep providers and the entire HME industry can transition into a post-pandemic reality and what that might look like
If providers learned anything from COVID-19, it’s that they need a more robust and professionally aggressive selling process. Ty Bello, CEO of HME sales coaching and consulting firm Team@Work, explains why the new normal for HME sales will be grounded in market data and customer relationship management. He discusses how HME market data has grown will be the driving force helping HME sales teams to grow existing referral sources and open new ways to gain market share. Then, he delves into the power of CRM holds for sales teams and how they can leverage it for success. Sponsored by PlayMaker Health.
When it comes to inventory management and equipment maintenance, HME providers contend with a unique dilemma: they have a considerable amount of inventory overhead, and much of it is out in the field. Simply put, where’s their stuff? And as COVID-19 has driven treatment into the home setting, that challenge the issue has only gotten larger. Industry supplier McKesson’s Biomedical Solutions business offers some clever technology for tackling that challenge, and Dylan Ross, vice president and general manager of McKesson Biomedical Solutions stops by to discuss them.
Various healthcare and market trends have been pushing the digital patient experience toward the home medical equipment industry for a few years, but COVID-19 set that motion on fast-forward. So what is the digital patient experience, why is it important to HME, and how do providers optimize and manage their patients’ digital experience? Nupura Kolwalkar, Chief Product Officer for HME software company Brightree joins the podcast to dive into the topic.
It’s 2021, and it’s time to think about how sales strategy will change for HME this year. Last year brought COVID-19 and with it considerable upheaval when it comes to HME sales, but providers learned several strategic sales lessons and innovated a number of creative solutions to tackle the PHE’s challenges. What lessons can they apply this year, and what changes can they expect? Joining the podcast to talk about those questions and a whole lot more is Ty Bello, CEO of HME sales coaching and consulting firm Team@Work.
It's 2021, and with the New Year comes an accreditation renewal cycle for most DMEPOS providers. What do providers need to be thinking about this year and how should they be preparing? How has COVID-19 altered the accreditation process? What other factors could impact how providers proceed? Accreditation expert Sandra C. Canally, RN, the CEO and founder of accreditation organization The Compliance Team, shares her knowledge on these topics and more.
The New Year is nearly upon us, and 2021 represents another big renewal year for DMEPOS accreditation. Moreover, during these three-year renewal cycles, providers often consider switching up their accreditation organization (AO). What are some the reasons that might make a provider consider switching things up? Is COVID-19 playing a role in that decision? What are the timing issues in play? What should they be asking AOs? Sandra C. Canally, RN, CEO and founder of AO The Compliance Team, shares her insights.
After weeks of radio silence, CMS finally announced Round 2021 and its proposed rule for rural providers. The announcement was shocking: it was only bidding two categories — both over-the-shelf braces — and punting on the 13 remaining categories. That news left the industry feeling somewhat in limbo and wondering what this meant for pricing and the possibility of futures rounds. Tom Ryan, president and CEO of the American Association for Homecare stopped by the HME Business podcast to clarify, share some insights, and chart a path forward.
Sleep therapy is a perfect micro that defines the macro of HME when it comes to COVID-19. Sleep therapy providers have had to ascend a steep learning curve to reshape how they safely and effectively provide products and services. Now that we are seven months into the public health emergency, Gary Sheehan, MBA, CEO of Spiro Health, catches up with the podcast. He discusses sleep care, COVID-19, the lessons sleep providers have learned, and how those lessons might carry them into a post-pandemic future.
Back on March 30, CMS suspended its claims audits for the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Well, CMS surprised everyone in August by announcing it would resume those audits.
Audit expert Wayne van Halem, president of The van Halem Group, discusses how CMS will likely phase back in the DME MAC Targeted Probe and Education, Supplemental Medical Review Contractor (SMRC) reviews and Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) audits. He also outlines how providers should prepare, and tackles additional questions.
Do you have a free five minutes between now and Aug. 31? Then you have time to protect a vulnerable patient group. Don Clayback, executive director of the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology (NCART), sits down with HMEB to discuss a campaign to convince lawmakers to add their signatures to a House sign-on letter urging CMS to not apply competitive bidding-derived pricing to accessories for manual complex rehab wheelchairs.
Tom Ryan, president and CEO of the American Association for Homecare, stops by to discuss two key items:
First, he shines a spotlight on the association’s Ambassador Program, a unique effort by high-profile industry stakeholders to get more HME providers involved in the association.
Second, he discusses the current effort to get HME stakeholders to help convince lawmakers to sign a House sign-on letter calling on CMS to delay Round 2021 of competitive bidding. The deadline is July 29.
Consumer financing is becoming commonplace in post-acute care, and that includes HME. In fact, with retail sales playing such a pivotal role in provider revenues, accommodating credit is downright essential. However, there are still providers who are unclear on healthcare-specific financing for HME. What do providers need to know to support healthcare credit cards — and reap the benefits? Randy Baldwin and Claude Royster of healthcare credit card company CareCredit share their expertise.
Providers and vendors have deployed a lot of smart care tools and solutions during COVID-19. What happens after the crisis passes? Arturo Garcia, senior product manager of connected solutions for sleep therapy equipment maker ResMed, joins the podcast to look at how sleep therapy providers are leveraging virtual and digital solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how those new protocols and care methods will improve sleep therapy in the post-pandemic future.
New York respiratory, sleep and HME provider Hampton Homecare Inc. has found itself at ground zero of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as its director of operations, Joe Candiano has overseen the company’s response to the public health emergency in terms of deliveries, equipment-handling, patient set-up, telehealth, staffing and other aspects of the business. Joe talks about the measures his business has taken, the sacrifices his team has made, and the lasting industry-wide changes he thinks will result from COVID-19.
Sponsored by McKesson, our special COVID-19 coverage continues with a deep dive into the many regulatory changes at the Federal and state level — as well as with private payer insurance — to help HME providers continue serving patients during the pandemic. The American Association for Homecare’s Kim Brummett, regulatory affairs VP, and Laura Williard, payer relations VP, join the podcast to discuss the $30 billion relief fund, relaxed funding requirements, telehealth guidelines, the pause on audits and more.
In this special episode, accreditation expert Sandra Canally, RN, founder and CEO of The Compliance Team, joins the podcast to provide a mountain of specific, how-to information on how HME providers can implement processes and procedures that will help protect their patients and staff, while continuing to provide care and services. She reviews practices HME businesses should implement at the storefront, in the warehouse, and out in the field. Be sure to keep a pen and notepad handy, because Sandy shares a ton of practical information.
Sponsored by PlayMaker Health — An in-depth effort to interview more than 20 HME providers of varying types and business models has uncovered common responses to COVID-19 being implemented across the industry. Ty Bello, president of HME sales and management consulting firm Team @Work, joins the HMEB Podcast to discuss his qualitative survey, which covered COVID-19 protocols for all aspects of HME: sales; engaging with patients at the business and in the home; telehealth; deliveries; working with referral providers; and operations. This is a must-listen episode for all providers wishing to adopt COVID-19 best practices learned by other HME businesses, as well as gauge the effectiveness of their initial efforts.
One group of HME providers having to face COVID-19 head on are oxygen providers. The patients they serve are some of the most vulnerable to the disease. Josh Parnes, president of national provider AdaptHealth, which provides a full suite of HME supplies and services, including in-home and portable Oxygen, ventilation and CPAP and BIPAP, outlines the various steps his business has taken to protect both patients and staff during the pandemic. He also explains why providers must convince Congress and CMS to protect patient access to oxygen equipment during COVID-19.
As with all other facets of U.S. healthcare, the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the HME industry in a big way. Gary Sheehan, MBA, president and CEO of Cape Medical Supply, explains in detail how his business prepared in terms of staff protection, patient care, teleworking, and operations. Moreover, he discusses why the preparations providers are making right now aren’t just to keep their businesses running, but because they are on the front lines of a broad, national healthcare response to the disease.
As HME providers in the western states prepare for the March 3-5 Medtrade Spring in Las Vegas, the American Association for Homecare is taking its regular AAHomecare Update, running March 4 from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., in a new direction with a new format and increased audience interaction. AAHomecare President and CEO Tom Ryan explains why AAHomecare decided to change things up and offers a peek at what’s in store.
Providers have felt the retail imperative for years, and some have even transitioned to – or began as – entirely retail businesses. But it’s not a slam dunk; there are some key things to do and assets to put in place. Faisal “RJ” Poonawala joins the podcast to talk about how his business, Spring Branch Medical Supply in Houston, Texas, made the switch to retail, the lessons he’s learned, and the initiatives he’s undertaking to not only succeed, but expand as well.
Respiratory care is learning that there is a wide variety of patients that need help with clearing their upper respiratory system so that they can achieve better alveolar ventilation. Enter nasal high-flow therapy, which began in the hospital setting, but is now entering the home setting thanks to new HME innovations. James Gibbons of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare discusses how providers can offer new care solutions and drive increased revenue in the process.
Staffing presents a tricky challenge for HME providers these days: Human resources are expensive, and in a competitive marketplace with winnowing reimbursement, they need to avoid wasting their team members’ talents on billing busywork. Outsourcing is one option, but a new company, Tactical Back Office, offers a unique solution that lets providers tap into lower-cost labor markets. Co-founder Todd Usher swings by the HMEB podcast to tell us more.
Annual HME conference and expo Medtrade Spring returns to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas on March 3-5, and Show Director Mark Lind joins the HME Business Podcast to highlight some of the event's don’t-miss conference sessions and expo showcases. There are some familiar favorites and some new twists at the event for HME providers in the West, so if you’re thinking of going, it’s worth a listen.
The industry is working on attaching language from some key industry bills to a spending bill that must pass before Dec. 20. However, the bills need more co-sponsors, and that’s where help from providers is urgently needed. Tom Ryan, the president and CEO of the American Association for Homecare, discusses the key bills in play and how HMEs can help get co-sponsors. This is a key opportunity to lobby on behalf of your business, but there’s a tight deadline, so listen and act fast.
Back in 2013, when HME providers were making tentative steps into retail sales, Wayne Slavitt decided to go all-in with his retail-only mobility and home medical equipment store Mobül: The Mobility Store in Long Beach, Calif. Since then, as founder and CEO, Slavitt has continued to sharpen his retail sales game. In this episode, Wayne sits down with HMEB to discuss various retail insights he’s learned, including having compelling combination of service-oriented sales; creating a product mix that appeals to all walks of consumers; and a store that emphasizes interaction and compassion.
This is the final installment of three special, post-Medtrade episodes. Kim Brummett, vice president of regulatory affairs for the American Association for Homecare, sheds some light on a proposed rule by HHS to loosen the regulatory prohibitions against physician self-referrals when it comes to DME. Brummett talks about what this could mean for providers and how the industry is approaching the issue. While the situation is still coming it to focus, it is already concerning.
This is the second of three special, post-Medtrade episodes. Third-party administrators (TPAs) are increasingly getting involved in Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) and often run right past protections for providers. Furthermore there have been some business developments in the MCO-TPA world that are compounding this problem. Laura Williard VP of payer relations for AAHomecare, provides all the details on the situation; sheds light on what’s being done to combat this problem; and outlines what providers should do to protect their businesses.
This is the first of three special, post-Medtrade episodes. As many providers know, CMS has added non-invasive ventilators to Round 2021 of competitive bidding. Jay Witter, senior vice president of public policy for AAHomecare, discusses the work done thus far to convince CMS to reverse its worrying course of action, as well as CMS's lack of a viable response, which has culminated in a pending legislative fix. What should you know, and how can you protect this benefit and the patients that need it?
Just in time for the Halloween season, we break some SCARY audit news: The HHS Office of Inspector General has expanded its audit workplan to include PAP supplies — again. Sleep equipment providers might recall that HHS OIG clamped down on claims for replacement PAP supplies in June 2018 after reporting that it had made overpayments of almost $631.3 million at that time. Now HHS is at it again, and sleep providers risk having their claims subjected to six-year lookback audits and expensive recoupments. We talk to audit expert Wayne van Halem to learn what sleep providers need to know and what they should be doing right now.
Did you know home oxygen fires kill one home oxygen patient every four days in the United States? Do you know what HME providers can do to help mitigate the issue? In this special edition of the HME Business podcast, Richard Radford, managing director of BPR Medical Gas Control, joins the podcast to discuss a new study his company produced that examines the incidence of home oxygen fires in the United States and how to mitigate the risk of them. The data might surprise you. Sponsored by BPR Medical.
In this special edition of the HME Business podcast, Executive Editor David Kopf interviews Sunil Krishnan and Fadi Haddad of HME and post-acute software company Brightree to take a deep dive into Revenue Cycle Management (RCM). They discuss what RCM is, how RCM can help HME providers better manage their businesses, how they can shape performance metrics around their RCM, and how they measure and analyze their performance to improve efficiencies and profitability. Sponsored by Brightree, this is one episode that providers with an eye on strategic business management won’t want to miss.
Jeffrey Baird, Esq., chairman of the Health Care Group at industry law firm Brown & Fortunato, P.C., discusses Medicare and Medicaid managed care opportunities, and how his Sept. 5 webinar, Managing the Managed Care Opportunity (hme-business.com/webcasts), will help providers negotiate managed care contracts. Then, Jim Worrell, chief commercial officer at Quality Biomedical, discusses the complicated challenge faced by providers when it comes to managing their “fleet” of equipment and how the Q-Connect equipment management platform can help them.
In this special edition of the HME Business Podcast, Executive Editor David Kopf interviews with Dr. David White, chief medical officer of Philips Sleep & Respiratory Care to examine a specific sleep therapy condition, positional sleep apnea, which deserves some special attention. Roughly 30 to 40 percent of apnea patients have the condition, and they can have twice as many apneas and hypopneas when they’re on their back. Dr. White discusses a new device that aims to help those patients manage the condition, which could open up new care and business opportunities for providers. Episode sponsored by Philips Sleep & Respiratory Care.
After a long career in business-to-business media and the HME industry, HME Business Publisher Karen Cavallo is retiring. Executive Editor David Kopf — who will move into Karen’s role as publisher — sits down with Karen to talk about her storied career in media and the home medical equipment industry. The two reflect on the major changes that have occurred both in HME and media, and the interesting ways those changes have interplayed with one another over the years.
John Gallagher, vice president of VGM Government Relations, and Ronda Buhrmester, Director of Reimbursement for VGM, discuss CMS’s decision to change the zip code designations for 381 zip codes. Then, Ty Bello, president and founder of HME sales training and coaching company Team@Work, and Jonathan Walters, vice president of Leadership Development & CRT Coaching, share their insights into new approaches to HME sales strategy, including driving new business by tapping into the CRT market.
In this episode, Seth Johnson, senior vice president of government relations for both Quantum Rehab and Pride Mobility Products, talks about Quantum Rehab’s iLevel. Now more than 25,000 consumers use the technology, which lets users of complex rehab power wheelchairs travel at walking speeds while their seats are elevated up to 12 inches. Moreover, various payers are funding it. The big question is when will Medicare join them? After that, Gary Sheehan, president and CEO of Cape Medical Supply Inc., talks about how his sleep business work to improve patient compliance with their sleep therapy.
Each spring, the American Association for Homecare hosts its Washington Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. to help providers meet with their lawmakers and staff on behalf of the industry. This year’s event, held on May 22 and 23, slated more than 300 meetings covering a packed agenda of items ranging from rural relief, to protecting respiratory concerns, to CRT. In this episode, a variety of industry advocates talk about their meetings, the industry’s priorities, and how all providers can help in the weeks after the event.
This special episode examines how providers of more than sleep therapy supplies—for example, incontinence, diabetic supply, and enteral nutrition—can expand and optimize their resupply programs to increase revenues and patient care. Executive Editor David Kopf interviews Morgan Dopplick, the Director of Connect Operations for Brightree, and Margaret Lindskog, the Director of Operations for ReSupply Live Call at Brightree, about how providers can maximize resupply best practices and technology innovations.
Industry legislative expert Cara Bachenheimer of industry law firm Brown & Fortunato and General Counsel to the American Association for Homecare, offers key details on Round 2021; how providers should prepare; and a new educational site to help them. Also, AAHomecare President and CEO Tom Ryan and NCART Executive Director Don Clayback discuss their organizations’ upcoming events.
Longtime HME Business contributor Sandra Canally, founder and CEO of accreditation organization The Compliance Team, chats with Executive Editor David Kopf about where accreditation has been, where it is going with trends such as the bid gap, the emergence of specialized accreditation, and how these services are helping providers sharpen their edge while improving outcomes for patients and referrals. She even gives us a sneak peek into a soon-to-come service from The Compliance Team.
Nikki Jensen, vice president of Essentially Women, joins HME Business Executive Editor David Kopf again, this time to discuss The Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act, why Medicare needs to fund custom breast prostheses, and the #LetHerDecide awareness and advocacy campaign. Then Wayne van Halem, president and founder of audit consulting firm The van Halem Group gives listeners the low-down on six-year lookback audits and what they need to know about them.
HME providers are constantly hunting for opportunities to diversify and broaden their revenues, and two such openings are managed care contracts and women’s health. HME Business Editor David Kopf sits down with Jeffrey S. Baird, Esq., the chairman of the Health Care Group at law firm Brown & Fortunato P.C., to learn more about managed care contracts — as well as a series of articles he’s written for HMEB on the topic — and he also chats with Nikki Jensen, vice president of Essentially Women, to learn more about her organization and the opportunities in women’s health.
The 116th Congress has been in session for a few weeks now, so HME Business Editor David Kopf checks in with Tom Ryan of the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) and Don Clayback from the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology (NCART) to find out what they have in the works in terms of their legislative and regulatory agendas for 2019.
To kick off the HME Business Podcast, host of the podcast and editor of HME Business Magazine David Kopf gives some insight into the mission and future of the podcast. He is joined by HME sales expert Ty Bello, who offers listeners some takeaways as to what providers should be doing for strategic sales planning.