On the Editor's Desk
Making them nervous
July 16, 2024Liz Beaulieu, Editor
HME stakeholders have been fighting Medicare Advantage for some time, particularly when it comes to these plans not following Medicare policy and coverage for complex rehab technology and non-invasive ventilators, two product categories for patients with the greatest needs.
At the Heartland Conference in June, there was even a panel discussion titled “Dealing with Medicare DISadvantage Plans - Are You Ready, Martha?”
Stakeholders continue to take it up a notch.
AAHomecare...
Something's in the air
July 1, 2024Liz Beaulieu, Editor
I had a conversation recently with someone who has been in the HME industry for quite some time – as a vendor and as a provider – and he said something to the effect of: The industry needs to give up on reimbursement getting better and lean into technology to make what little reimbursement there is more profitable.
That’s not a hard line I would draw – and, of course, neither would AAHomecare and other industry stakeholders.
In fact, stakeholders headed to Capitol...
Change after Change
April 11, 2024Liz Beaulieu, Editor
When Change Healthcare acknowledged that it had been hacked by a “threat actor” named “BlackCat” and subsequently had to disconnect its systems, we were fairly certain it would be the subject of the cartoon and HME Newspoll for the April issue.
There were other ideas, of course – Theresa and I are nothing but a font of content, are we not? – including a poll on the impact on the HME industry of Dexcom’s plans to offer a continuous glucose monitoring...
Shock and disruption
March 1, 2024Liz Beaulieu, Editor
During the final stages of getting the March issue out the door, Managing Editor Theresa Flaherty and I also had on our to-do list coming up with a guest for the February episode of the HME News in 10 podcast.
Given the recent decision by Philips to exit the home oxygen concentrator and ventilator markets in the United States, we thought it would be important to invite someone who could speak to the continued tumultuousness of the larger respiratory product category in the past few years.
This...
Be like Bill
January 23, 2024Liz Beaulieu, Editor
It’s that time of year to look at the year that was – in HME News stories.
As we were putting together the finishing touches on this January issue, I pulled the 10 most read stories for 2023.
I was pleased as punch to see a story we published about Miller’s opening its fifth location in Ohio was the No. 1 most read story of the year by a long shot. In a year when the CPAP recall, supply chain challenges and increased costs weighed heavily on the industry, I’m...
I have questions
November 21, 2023Liz Beaulieu, Editor
YARMOUTH, Maine – One of the most interesting takeaways from the HME News Business Summit in Charlotte, N.C., Oct. 22-24, was just how much commercial insurers care about patient satisfaction.
Brad Heath, an executive vice president with AdaptHealth, was part of a panel at the Summit on disruptive partnerships with payers. AdaptHealth, along with Rotech Healthcare, as we all know, has a contract with Humana to provide certain home medical equipment services to its Medicare Advantage...
Will you show up?
November 10, 2023Liz Beaulieu, Editor
AAHomecare and VGM will host another virtual lobbying day next week, on Nov. 13, to help push reimbursement relief bills in the House of Representatives and Senate across the finish line before Congress wraps up its work for the year.
The event will build on AAHomecare’s annual Washington Legislative Conference, which took place less than two months prior, on Sept. 20.
Managing Editor Theresa Flaherty and I can’t swear by it, but we haven’t seen...
Swords and sticks
September 15, 2023Liz Beaulieu, Editor
YARMOUTH, Maine – It was big news when UnitedHealthcare announced it would reduce the number of product codes requiring prior authorizations. Cigna soon followed suit and then Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and others. While it was big news, it wasn’t surprising.
The American Medical Association (AMA) has been on a fierce campaign to reduce prior authorizations. On its website, the AMA characterizes it this way: “Prior authorization is a health plan cost-control process...
Semaglutides and sleep (and diabetes and …???)
August 23, 2023Liz Beaulieu, Editor
You’d have to be living under a rock not to know what semaglutides are these days. (Tell that to Microsoft Word, though – it didn’t tell me my initial spelling of semaglutides – semi vs. sema – was wrong.) Semaglutides, of course, are the new weight loss medications that go by brand names like Wegovy, Ozempic and Rybelsus. It’s hard to keep track of which celebrities have been on it, are on it or are denying being on it.
But I’d be lying if I weren’t...
Disruption, innovation and growth in first half of 2023
July 18, 2023Liz Beaulieu, Editor
We’ve burned through the first half of 2023 already and what do we have to show for it?
If the most read stories from January through June are any indication, it’s disruption, innovation and growth.
Let’s start with disruption. It has come in a number of forms in 2023, including one of the HME industry’s legacy manufacturers, Invacare, filing for bankruptcy. We posted a story about that to our website in February, and it remains the most read story of the...