Seventh inning stretch? Bill Mixon’s just getting started

YARMOUTH, Maine – A new partnership with Waud Capital allows Bill Mixon, who previously served as CEO of National Seating & Mobility and Advanced Diabetes Supply, to help build a platform player in an emerging market within the home medical equipment (HME) industry. 

“I’m in my first inning with Waud and it will evolve,” he said. “But the ability to work with a progressive private equity firm that is in the same space I’ve been in for 20 years is very attractive to me. As I get into the seventh inning of my career, I want to be helping patients and making companies better.” 

HME News: After leading two national companies in the industry, what attracted you to this new role? 

Bill Mixon: This is a chance for me to work in partnership with a private equity firm, Waud, to identify where the favorable trends in HME are, and then deploy some of my capabilities relative to prior experiences that I've had where we can create best in class solutions inside of one or more companies.  

HME: How do you feel your experience in the industry will serve you in this new role? 

Mixon: I understand the macro drivers of what it takes to deliver excellent patient care and I understand the other external areas that we need to be good at HME. We need to understand our relationships with payers. We need to understand the regulatory environment. We need to be able to advocate with our policymakers, relative to what's happening in Washington, D.C. We need to drive better care for chronic conditions. We need to partner with payers more effectively. We need more value-added services. We need more value-added services bundled around our core capabilities around distribution. We need to help patients. We need to help insurance companies improve outcomes. And, you know, we need to be able to leverage technology and future capabilities like AI. 

HME: Speaking of the future, competitive bidding is coming back around. What impacts might we see? 

Mixon: The government has not been that successful at competitive bidding. I don't believe there is as much opportunity for CMS to drive savings in today's HME world as maybe there was 15, 20 years ago. I believe companies that are smart and that are efficient and that are serving their patients well will prosper, and I believe that, as has generally been the case, the HME ecosystem will persevere. 

HME: Are there any particular areas in HME that you see as a bright spot for investment? 

Mixon: I think we're keeping the aperture very wide right now. Looking at the macro level, you have this language called specialty supplies and device distribution. That is a $125 billion dollar market. Then you have provider-outsourced services. That's a $20 billion market. And so, the answer is, we're looking at a wide spectrum of areas inside of HME.