Editor’s note: The value of being in the room

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – This year's HME News Business Summit was a record-breaker, both in sponsor support and paid attendance, and that's worth taking a moment to acknowledge. It's also becoming something of a closed-door meeting, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Our ability to attract speakers like Dr. J.B. Sobel of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee often comes with one important condition: They want the freedom to speak candidly with attendees without every comment being broadly disseminated afterward.

Frankly, I understand that. Some of the most valuable conversations happen when speakers can move beyond prepared remarks and have an honest exchange with providers and other stakeholders.

It's also a reminder that there is real value in being in the room. One of the advantages of attending the Summit isn't just hearing the presentations. It's being part of the conversations that happen around them.

For that reason, you won't find a traditional conference recap in HME News this year. But I do want to share a few observations that stayed with me long after I returned from Louisville, Ky.

The first is what I'll call the C-word: costs.

During his keynote, Dr. Sobel said payers like BCBS of Tennessee care about patient outcomes and patient satisfaction. They do. But he was equally clear that, in today's environment, their top priority is controlling costs for employer customers and members.

That theme seemed to overshadow almost every other topic discussed during his fireside chat with AAHomecare’s Laura Williard. Value-based care. Artificial intelligence. Contracting. Prior authorization. All important topics, certainly. But again and again, the conversation returned to cost.

Sound familiar?

HME providers aren't the only ones feeling pressure. Payers are navigating a challenging environment of their own, including medical cost inflation and regulations that limit the percentage of premium dollars that can go toward profit and overhead. It was a useful reminder that everyone in the health care ecosystem is trying to solve a financial puzzle.

The second C-word that surprised me: cash.

The HME industry seems to go through cycles on this topic. One minute everyone is moving toward more sophisticated reimbursement models and value-based arrangements. The next minute we're talking about cash-pay opportunities again.

Yet it came up repeatedly. Executives from large HME companies brought it up. Kingswood Capital's Brandon Sucaldito brought it up. When industry leaders operating from very different vantage points arrive at the same conclusion, it's probably worth paying attention.

A few other observations:

• The third-party administrator (TPA) panel generated some debate before it even took the stage. What struck me most wasn't what the panelists said, which largely followed familiar talking points. It was the realization that TPAs, ultimately, need provider participation and performance for their model to succeed with payers. Whether providers recognize it or not, that represents leverage.
• I enjoyed hearing entrepreneurs like Wesley Lones of Daybreak and Fatima Denney of iSleep Physicians discuss the evolution of their businesses. Neither appears interested in operating within traditional boundaries, and there is a lesson in that. Some of the most interesting companies in health care today are willing to rethink assumptions about who they serve, how they serve them and where growth comes from.
• The Summit's requisite session on AI and automation turned out to be refreshingly practical. The advice wasn't to wait for the perfect solution or the perfect use case. It was to start. Experiment. Learn. Improve. In other words, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Really good insights from Cardinal Health’s Jenna Hecht, CCS’s Richard Makey and Health System Services’ Rob Minicucci, led by ACU-Serve’s Kyle Neese.

Every year, our goal is for attendees to return home with at least a few new ideas, a few new connections and a renewed sense of possibility about where this industry is headed.

I hope we accomplished that this year.

And finally, a shout-out to the women who arrived a day early for Elevate, our pre-conference event for women leaders. The conversations were thoughtful, candid and encouraging. It was one of those gatherings where the participants were every bit as inspiring as the presenters.

Both the Summit and Elevate reinforced why getting the right people in the same room still matters.