Thinking about snow…and the Summit

Because I start planning the educational program for the HME News Business Summit in January or February, I often equate the event with winter.

As I look out at a fresh foot of snow (and think about the two feet of additional snow we could get through Monday), my mind is on what's top of mind for the C-level execs in the HME industry, and how to turn that into informative and impactful sessions for the Summit.

I'm a bit behind the ball this year (see above: snow means treacherous driving conditions, preventing you from driving to work and day care, which means, not working from home, but hanging out with a two year old).

But don't worry: I have a few ideas that appear to be gelling together.

Because the Summit is in Cleveland this year (at the Ritz-Carlton, as a matter of fact), I know I'd like someone from the Cleveland Clinic, one of the pre-eminent hospitals in the country, to address our crowd. It looks like our man might be Don Carroll, who heads up the clinic's Center for Connected Care, which houses all of its home and transitional care services. He's been charged with finding out how the clinic should respond to increasing pressure to “control” lives outside of its four walls. Carroll has already built out a specialty pharmacy division for the Cleveland Clinic and managed a 19-store pharmacy chain for the hospital. He will talk about how he plans to reshape how the Cleveland Clinic is tackling one of its biggest challenges yet: becoming not just a provider of specialty referral-based services, but also a manager of population health.

I also know I want to address M&A and investments in the HME industry. This is a recurring topic at the Summit, but I feel like 2016 was an especially interesting year for M&A and investments, and I'd like to approach the topic more from the buyer's perspective, whether it's an HME company buying another HME company or a private equity firm investing in an HME company. Why are they so bullish on the market?

While we don't typically do regulatory and legislative updates at the Summit (AAHomecare has a great event dedicated to just this each spring), I don't think we can ignore the topic of healthcare reform this year, not with the new administration and new secretary of health and human services. How will the Affordable Care Act and other reform efforts be impacted? I'm looking for an expert in Cleveland (an attorney from the Center for Health Law & Policy at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law? An analyst from the Center for Health Care Research and Policy at Case Western University?) to give us the latest and greatest.

Finally, I'm rolling around ideas about how to address labor cost management, and how to continue last year's conversation about interoperability.

But I need more ideas. If you can't come to Maine to help me shovel (or take care of a two year old, so I can work), the least you can do is jot me a line (ebeaulieu@hmenews.com) or send me a tweet (@hmeliz) and let me know what's top of your mind.

The Summit is just as much your event as ours.