Matt Filippis works to level playing field for smaller providers

WATERLOO, Iowa – Matt Filippis says his main goal as the new director of business development for Clinical Mobility and Accessibility for VGM & Associates is to sharpen the competitive edge of smaller providers in the complex rehab technology (CRT), orthotics and prosthetics (O&P) and home access markets.

“Competition creates good service,” he said. “It keeps all providers honest.”

Filippis has a mix of experience – small and big. He joins VGM from AdaptHealth, where he helped standardize its CRT businesses before the company sold them to National Seating & Mobility (NSM). He has also worked at NSM, as well as Wright & Filippis.

HME News: How do you aim to help smaller providers compete?

Matt Filippis: One of the biggest challenges is being able to compete for assistive technology professionals (ATPs). ATPs have their choice of opportunities, so how will you build and retain talent? We can help them build their ATP programs from within. With the ATP programs we have – the tech-to-ATP program and the ATP readiness program – we can help existing employees get certified and then you’re growing organically. That has a big impact on margins.

HME: There are several challenges in CRT – a small number of large providers with significant market share and, as you just mentioned, a sometimes complex and costly staffing need. Why is this a good business to stick with?

Filippis: One of the biggest pluses is the complex and custom nature of the business, which means it has been excluded from (Medicare’s) competitive bidding program. So, pricing has been somewhat protected. Medicare has also done a lot of good things for CRT when it comes to applying prior authorization requirements and adding coverage for power seat elevation. This has helped to increase access.

HME: In addition to CRT, you’ll be working with members in the O&P and home access markets. What synergies and potential growth opportunities do you see between these markets?

Filippis: There’s a strong case, especially for home access and CRT. If you have a complex chair that you use in the home, how do you get outside your home and how do you go somewhere? That’s something we’re focusing on, and we have the services and support to offer them. How do you go down this path? Here’s a 10-point plan for how to get there.

HME: CRT is one of those fields that almost always requires serendipity. How did you first get into the market?

Filippis: If you had asked me when I got out of school and started working at Wright & Filippis if I’d go down the CRT path, I would have told you you were crazy. My first five years full-time at Wright & Filippis were O&P. At the same time, they’re both so custom and clinically driven that the transition made a lot of sense. Instead of legs and braces to help people get around, it was wheelchairs. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Alan Lynch (now at Westpeak Mobility), who I spent two years working closely with at Wright & Filippis. He was the one who really opened the company’s eyes to complex rehab.