Progressive network

CARLSBAD, Calif.--After 25 years in the sleep business, Progressive Medical realized it had a valuable commodity to share: experience. In April, the company launched a fee-based network to offer education to providers and other healthcare professionals on strengthening their sleep business. “We're amazed at how many calls we get from people who say they're in sleep,” said Shannon Mulcahy, business development. “They say they know sleep, but when we ask them what they know, they don't understand sleep.” Members can take a number of classes encompassing areas like identifying target markets, empowering primary care physicians and becoming invaluable to sleep labs. “A good HME that's knowledgeable can befriend a lab and not be a foe, especially with home sleep tests,” said Melanie Arledge, manager. Programs are customizable to an individual provider's needs. “We do an assessment to find out why things aren't working or who they want to target,” said Arledge. “We take a good look at where they stand.” Educating providers ultimately helps patients, said Arledge. “What we do is improve efficacy. Our compliance rate is in the 90s,” she said. “We want that to be nationwide. Why shouldn't other patients benefit from having knowledgeable homecare companies?” While the big news in sleep of late has been CMS's decision to cover at-home sleep tests, Progressive has been doing home sleep studies for two years. “All (CMS's decision) did was give us credibility,” said company founder Helen Kent. “You don't mess around waiting until they are all retired and on Medicare. We want to help younger people.”