HME Business Podcast

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.

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.