John Loyer earns award

MIDDLEBURY, Conn. - It's easy for HME providers to lose confidence these days, with Medicare reimbursement dwindling, and fraud and abuse making headline after headline.

But provider John Loyer got a boost in October when he received  the “Invacare Award of Excellence in Home Respiratory Care” by the American Respiratory Care Foundation (ARCF), the philanthropic arm of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC).

“When I heard that I had received the award, the first word that came to mind was validation,” said Loyer, a respiratory therapist who co-founded J&L Medical Services. “It's validation that we're doing the right thing.”

Loyer was nominated by a peer for the award. In December, Loyer will attend the AARC's 55th International Respiratory Conference in San Antonio to personally accept the award.

By “doing the right thing” Loyer means not cutting services to the bone, especially the clinical services provided by J&L's seven respiratory therapists.

“It's a struggle, because these services aren't reimbursable, so we have to make some business decisions on how to best use our therapists,” he said. “But we continue to do a lot of education in the home—teach them how to walk up the stairs or get out to grocery shop. If patients are very ambulatory, we continue to try to set them up with portable oxygen concentrators. These are things that I've seen a lot of other providers cut back on.”

Loyer rounds out what he calls “good patient care” by hosting several events throughout the year, including free screenings, Better Breathers Club meetings and legislative updates.

“We sleep well at night knowing we've taken care of our patients,” said Loyer.

It's that attitude that makes providers like Loyer worthy of the award, said Patrick Dunne, an ARCF trustee and industry consultant.

“They go above and beyond the call of duty,” he said. “They do things where it's not just about providing product and getting reimbursed.”