Talk up home sleep testing

Even though HME providers can't conduct home sleep tests themselves, at least not when Medicare is the payer, they should still be very much vested in the success of the market, vendors say.

Mark Sorrells, president and CEO of IDS, says providers are talking with their physician referral sources about the company's direct-to-patient mail delivery model for home sleep testing (HST). Their thinking: If they can make it convenient for the physician to order a test, they'll be more likely to get the referral if a patient ends up needing therapy.

“They're really kind of marketing our services to physicians,” he said.

Dave Kazynski, vice president of VGM Homelink, agrees that it behooves providers to talk up HST. He says it often benefits providers when Homelink gets a contract with a transportation company to provide HST.

“We're doing a lot of the back-room work on getting the orders, but then our program is to use our members to provide the equipment for therapy,” he said.

Ren�e Gapen, diagnostic market manager for ResMed, says, at the end of the day, providers are here to serve patients and if getting a home sleep test means patients are more likely to get tested, everybody wins.

“We're all about changing lives,” she said. “We have tons of testimonials from patients who finally got tested and how it changed their lives.”