Tag: Study
New study links OSA with mental health decline
December 29, 2025HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine - Middle-aged and older adults at high risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) had consistently worse mental health outcomes, according to a national longitudinal cohort study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Key points from the study:
Question: Is high risk of OSA associated with increased odds of concurrent and future mental health conditions among middle-aged and older adults?
Findings:...
Study: Health care workers say technology important factor in job satisfaction
December 8, 2025HME News Staff
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Persistent staffing shortages, high turnover and escalating burnout are intensifying pressures across the care continuum, prompting demand for technology that drives greater efficiency, according to a workforce study released by WellSky. Ninety percent of nurses and health care professionals surveyed identified care coordination technology as valuable to the quality and efficiency of their work. Many also pointed to electronic...
Updated cost study addresses pressure sores, incontinence, diabetes
July 21, 2022HME News Staff
WATERLOO, Iowa – For every $1 CMS invests in DME and supplies to prevent pressure sores, it will see a return of $38.54 in reduced or avoided treatment costs, according to an updated study from VGM Government Relations and Leitten Consulting.
DME and supplies to prevent pressure sores was one of three new categories included in the study. The others: catheters and related urological supplies, and diabetic test strips and monitors.
“As CMS forced prices down and treatment...
Non-invasive vents decrease mortality, hospitalization, ER visits, Viemed study shows
January 11, 2021HME News Staff
LAFAYETTE, La. – Viemed Healthcare has published a study that shows non-invasive ventilation at home improves survival and decreases health care utilization in Medicare beneficiaries with COPD with chronic respiratory failure.
“This study is the first of its kind published in the U.S. and represents a significant milestone in our mission of educating the medical community on the benefits of NIVH,” said Casey Hoyt, Viemed CEO. “The data supports...
Inspire touts therapy specifically for Medicare patients
May 17, 2019Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
MINNEAPOLIS - Inspire Medical Systems has announced the results of a study that shows Medicare-aged patients, in particular, respond well to and adhere to its therapy. The study, led by physicians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, followed 235 Medicare-aged patients and 365 younger-aged patients and collected information on sleep apnea severity, quality of life and any complications with the procedure. The results demonstrated that, while all patients positively responded to Inspire therapy,...
VGM tallies costs by region
August 7, 2018HME News Staff
WATERLOO, Iowa - The VGM Group has released the results of a “Delivery Cost Survey” that puts into perspective how costly it is for HME providers to provide patients with the necessary equipment.
In New England, for example, providers report that it costs them $22.43 in vehicle costs per delivery and $18 in labor costs per hour, according to the survey. When you take into account the 23.33 miles from business to home and the 31.67 minutes it takes for in-home set up, that's an...
New study highlights bid program's flaws
July 20, 2018HME News Staff
SAN FRANCISCO - Add the Pacific Research Institute to the long list of economists and researchers who believe CMS's current competitive bidding program for HME is inefficient at best and dangerous at worst.
PRI's study, “Reforming CMS' Competitive Bidding Process to Improve Quality and Sustainability,” borrows on the work of Peter Cramton, an economist and outspoken critic of the program, and research firms like Dobson DaVanzo & Associates.
“Medicare patients are...
CPAP therapy reduces risk of heart failure for all, study finds
July 17, 2018HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine - Sleep apnea not treated with CPAP therapy was associated with an increased risk of heart failure in patients of all ages, according to a nationwide cohort study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Using nationwide databases, the study followed the entire Danish population from 2000 until 2012. Patients with sleep apnea receiving and not receiving CPAP therapy were identified and compared with the background population. The primary end point was first-time...
ResMed: Bi-level therapy can save adherence
June 5, 2018HME News Staff
BALTIMORE - A ResMed-sponsored study shows that shifting patients who are struggling with adherence to a PAP device to a more advanced bi-level device in the first 90 days of treatment is an effective tool in more than half of cases. In the study, ResMed compared 1,496 non-compliant patients who switched to bi-level therapy and found that compliance was achieved by 58.5% of patients who switched before day 60, 54.2% of patients who switched between days 60-90, and 56.8% of patients overall. “Finding...
New study links non-adherence to CPAP therapy to hospital readmissions
February 23, 2018HME News Staff
DARIEN, Ill. - Non-adherence to CPAP therapy is significantly associated with increased 30-day hospital readmissions, according to a study of patients with obstructive sleep apnea published in the Feb. 15 issue of Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.Non-adherent patients were three times more likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days for any cause, the study shows."Until now no one has investigated the role of CPAP non-adherence in 30-day readmissions as an independent risk factor...