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Crushing it? For the diabetes herd, technology is path forward
April 13, 2021Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
I got my first COVID vaccination in early April and immediately slacked my co-workers to share an image of my “Crushing COVD-19” sticker. Along with the obligatory congratulatory emojis, came the obligatory jokes about government chips and tracking.
As a person with diabetes, I’m used to tracking. I track my numbers, my insulin doses and my carbs. In turn, my Freestyle Libre sensor tracks me and sends data wirelessly to the Diabetes Center from my iPhone (no more arriving at...
They say crime doesn't pay. In this case, it appears to have bought a yacht.
January 25, 2021Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
I received a press release last week from the DOJ about the latest news in Medicare fraud involving, what else, braces!
Juan Camilo Perez Buitrago and two of his employees submitted more than $109 million in false claims for arm, back, knee and shoulder braces. (nothing to see here).
But it’s the details that really made me say, WTF? You see, as part of his scheme, Buitrago had the employees, Jessica Jones and Elizabeth Putulin, list his wife, mother and yacht captain as directors for...
The new normal? Wear a mask and carry on
November 16, 2020Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
TV shows have begun having their fall premieres and as I settled in recently to watch a few (Chicago PD, Grey's Anatomy, Rise Up), I found myself transported more than once back to the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, when so much was unknown and scary, and yet, seemed so temporary. When I bailed on my office March 18 with the speed of one abandoning a city falling to invading troops, I honestly thought I'd be back in a week or 10 days. I'm sure most of us did.
I think we all know how that...
Blogging from the beach: The freshman 15
August 26, 2020Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
After weeks of receiving email notifications from LinkedIn, I learned the reason why when I logged onto the company Slack this week.
August 25 marked my 15-year anniversary with HME News, according to the impeccable records of the Capable Erika.
Fifteen years! I'm never sure whether to celebrate or commiserate when someone hits such a lengthy tenure.
That first week, I had no idea what I had done, what I was doing, what the heck was a rollator, and what the future held, either for me or this strange...
Dispatches from the dining room: Another stupid question? Everyone's a critic
August 12, 2020Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
Every month HME News sends out a newspoll to gauge provider opinion on timely issues affecting the HME industry. Some poll questions are better than others, but we always try to put thought into them.
It's harder than you might think.
Every once in awhile, while scrolling through the responses readers are kind enough to submit, we'll get a comment like this: “Another stupid question.”
The month's stupid question was about providers' take on the COVID-19 pandemic: What is the pandemic...
Dispatches from the dining room: Who's running this show, anyhow?
July 2, 2020Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
I couldn't have timed it more perfectly if I were starring in a sitcom. Just ahead of our scheduled podcast recording on Wednesday afternoon, I tucked myself away in my quiet bedroom, phone, laptop with script, and headphones at hand.
Ahead of calling our special guest (in this case Apria's Bill Guidetti), Liz and I always connect on the phone to make sure everything is copacetic.
And it was, until it wasn't. At that very moment, my fire alarms went off. All of them.
“Ohmigodohmigodohmigod”...
Dispatches from the dining room: Unicorn days and a connected future
June 1, 2020Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
Today was a unicorn day.
What do I mean by that? In diabetes parlance, a unicorn is a blood sugar reading of 100. No scientific reasoning that I'm aware, it's just a nice, round number, generating excitement not unlike that of aperfect score on a school test.
One thing I've learned over the past 11 weeks or so of working from home is that you can't anticipate all the little technological snafus that never happened in the office.
Case in point: Although I like the little scanner that comes with the...
Dispatches from the dining room: Flattening the (blood sugar) curve
April 20, 2020Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
Appropriate to my current WFH status, I also had my first ever telehealth appointment last week, with Sarah the CDE. It was simply a three-month check-in to see how I was doing with diabetes management, including what patterns have been cropping up in my blood sugar numbers, and where I could make changes to fine-tune things.
On the plus side, I've been getting in more exercise because I force myself out for walks whenever the weather is agreeable (so, about half as often as I—or Sarah—would...
Dispatches from the dining room: 'Sorry, Dr. Masood, I can't hear anything!'
April 7, 2020Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
I had no sooner positioned my phone on the dining room table, speaker phone engaged and introduced myself to Dr. Sohail Masood of KabaFusion when the lawn guys showed up in all their noisy, machine-wielding glory.
I tried moving phone, laptop and Dr. Masood away from the racket—first to the living room couch, then, when that didn't help, to the bedroom.
“I'm sorry, I can't hear you!” I apologized, more than once. I then had to interrupt him again to pop in earbuds while frantically...
Dispatches from the dining room: Notes on the coronavirus
April 1, 2020Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
My most important task as a reporter when it comes to any crisis happening in the world at large is talking to HME providers to find out what's happening on the front lines. What are you seeing? What's been the impact? What are you doing? What do you need everyone (especially policymakers) to know?
We do this fairly frequently (hurricanes. competitive bidding. locusts). In-house, we refer to it as the disaster beat. However, nothing could have prepared us for the disaster unfolding in real time....