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Forget COVID

Forget COVID

We’ve been doing a lot of talking here at HME News about the Philips recall. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s all anyone’s been talking about in the industry, on webinars, on state association calls, to me.

Forget COVID. "This is going to be far worse,” is a common refrain.

It’s not hard to understand why, even as we don’t yet fully know how far the ripple effect will spread. While the immediate concerns have focused on just getting information to communicating with patients to worrying about the existing supply chain issues, longer range are billing concerns and blowback from insurers and the general public.

I suspect many providers will also see a small percentage of patients who may have already been on the fence about using CPAP use the recall as an excuse to “throw away the device,” as one panelist said on a June 18 webcast hosted by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which drew so much interest not everyone who wanted to could join in.

In speaking with CPAP providers, the reactions range from furious (“I am so angry with Philips right now it is probably best I do not express my opinions” from one provider) to sympathetic (“This type of a recall is fairly unprecedented for our industry so I’m patient,” said another).

At any rate, the recall is certainly keeping us hopping here at HME News. Unfortunately, I suspect it's also causing a lot of sleepness nights out there, too.

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