AMEP provides ‘strength in numbers’

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – HME providers in Arkansas, with help from Natural State Consulting and Strategies, a well-connected lobbying firm, recently formed an association to unify their voice and have already secured a few legislative wins. 

“While associations are becoming more prevalent, we didn’t have one, so our voices were fragmented,” said Shawn McCoy, founder and president of Eclipse Medical and president of the Arkansas Medical Equipment Providers Association (AMEP). “We were just individual DMEs doing what we do day in and day out without cohesion and without the ability to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s happening at the state capitol.” 

McCoy is joined on AMEP’s board by Brad White, president and founder of Petit Jean Medical Supply; Todd Ross, president and CEO of Finnegan Health Services; and Cole Riddell, general counsel for Total Medical Supply. David Chandler of AAHomecare and Craig Douglas of VGM & Associates are also members. 

AMEP was born out of necessity, McCoy says, when several providers in the state learned of a new law that made the pharmacy benefit the only channel for Medicaid recipients to access continuous glucose monitors. The association has since gotten its own bill introduced and passed – HB1255, which will amend coverage to allow recipients to obtain CGMs through the DME benefit and will allow DME providers to bill for the devices using a HCPCS code rather than the national drug code number used by pharmacies. 

“We wouldn’t have been able to do that without strength in numbers,” McCoy said. 

AMEP isn't stopping there. The association has also gotten another bill introduced and passed – HB1321, which will regulate step therapy and fail-first protocols for non-invasive ventilators.  

“We’re trying to mirror what other states have done on a Medicaid level, trying to make sure these patients who suffer from chronic conditions like COPD have access to the proper equipment and not having to go through this try-first-and-fail approach with CPAP and BiPAP,” McCoy said. 

For now, AMEP is keeping its work focused, says Caitlyn Hiland, executive director, with the main goal of making sure legislators and policymakers know the value of HME. 

“These providers provide an exceptional service, and they don’t realize they’re there,” said Hiland, who previously worked in the office of former Gov. Asa Hutchinson and on staff for Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., in Washington, D.C.