TeleNav has a crush on the HME industry

DALLAS - When TeleNav executives look at the home medical equipment industry, they see a giant "sweet spot" of potential customers for their mobile resource management (MRM) products.

For this enthusiasm, providers can thank declining or stagnant reimbursement and growing regulatory burdens--everything that requires them to be more efficient than ever before.

"As the healthcare industry looks to get more service done off of hospital premises, we see a burgeoning market in the home healthcare service market and also the equipment delivery market," Keith Halasy, senior marketing manager, B2B Products, told HME News recently.

TeleNav, which services close to 9,000 customers (mostly in the transportation and construction industries), is part of the growing field of "mobile resource management." Frost & Sulllivan, a market research firm, defines MSM "as a category of business solutions designed to maximize the productivity of mobile work forces by more effectively managing mobile workers, mobile tasks, and mobile assets."

For HME, this includes the ability to better manage driver techs and delivery vehicles through a GPS/communication system that operates through a cell phone. Rental equipment also can be equipped with GPS tags and tracked, Halasy said.

"We're seeing strong evidence that insurers are providing premium discounts for businesses that can provide this kind of location status information on their assets 24/7," he said. "If you can show that you have that level of control and visibility, it provides piece of mind to the insurer that you are able to mitigate risk."

TeleNav also allows providers to add new deliveries on the fly in the middle of the day by pinpointing the driver closest to the new address. Add it all up--lower fuel costs due to better routing and scheduling, asset control and reduced insurance premiums--and TeleNav's ROI (either $22.99 per employee per month or $27.99 for a premium version) can sound "fantastical," Halasy said.

"I think there will come a day when people will look back and wonder: 'How did we operate a mobility operation without having this kind of control,'" he said. "That will be a great day for us."