HME Business Podcast by David Kopf

11.16.2023

The Value of Education to an Evolving HME Industry

As crucial professionals in the healthcare continuum, home medical equipment (HME) providers must keep evolving and embracing change to better serve their patients. Matt Gruskin, Chief Operating Officer of the Board of Certification and Accreditation (BOC), discusses the value of...

09.20.2023

Integrating Quality Improvement into Day-to-Day Activities

Quality improvement is an integral part of achieving Home Medical Equipment accreditation and maintaining it. But how is quality improvement defined for an HME business, and what role should it play in a provider’s daily routine? Sandra C. Canally, RN,...

06.30.2023

Episode 088 – People Power: Staffing for Success in an Ever-Changing World

An HME supplier’s success depends on building a team of fully trained, highly professional, and dependable staffers that are experts at what they do. But needing to frequently recruit, train, and onboard new staffers is costly in both time and...

05.08.2023

Episode 087 – RCM and Security

Many HME providers are opting to outsource their revenue cycle management or parts of their RCM for a lot of different reasons. Most of those reasons are focused on optimizing business performance, but there’s one more reason that might not...

02.28.2023

Episode 086 – Solving HME’s Tricky Staffing Challenges

The owners, operators and management of HME providers are currently contending with a tricky problem: There are certain roles within the HME business that require specialized knowledge, professionalism and dedication, yet the current job market means high employee turnover, transition...

02.17.2023

Episode 085 – Outsourcing & Analytics

HME businesses are facing staffing challenges that are impacting both their top and bottom lines, but there are outsourcing solutions that can help them. However, the key is to do it right, which means measurement and analytics. What are the...

01.25.2023

Episode 084 – Outcomes-Based Sales

We’ve all heard of outcomes-based and value-based care and how that trend is impacting provider care and business operations for HME providers, but what about sales? How do providers win over key referral partner and payer relationships in that environment?...

01.11.2023

Episode 083 – Medicare Advantage Audits

Recent CMS audits of Medicare Advantage health plans uncovered roughly $12 million in net overpayments. Moreover, CMS said it was going to extrapolate the payment error rates across all Medicare Advantage plans to recoup an estimated $650 million. As a...

10.14.2022

Episode 082 – What’s New for Medtrade East

In less than two weeks, the industry will pack its bags to attend Medtrade East, which runs Oct. 24-26 at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center. This year marks some changes for the event before it moves to Dallas in 2023,...

09.30.2022

Episode 081 – The Strategic Value of Accreditation

Medicare accreditation goes much deeper than simply being able to bill Medicare as a DMEPOS supplier. In fact, accreditation has considerable strategic value for HME providers when it comes to differentiating themselves in their marketplace, uncovering new opportunities, and demonstrating...

09.27.2022

Episode 080 – DMEPOS Retailer Certification

Everyone HME provider knows that if you’re going to be a DMEPOS supplier, then you need to be accredited to bill Medicare. But what if you’re an HME provider that doesn’t supply Medicare? More specifically, what if you’re a retail...

09.16.2022

Episode 079 – Technology Building Blocks for HME & CRT Providers

Running an HME or CRT business is filled with a dizzying array of complex workflows and unique business, funding and care protocols, practices and procedures. That’s why Bill Paul, who, as a one-time CRT provider, built a series of technology...

09.09.2022

Episode 078 – Reassuring Retail HME Customers During Tough Times

Ask any retail HME provider, and they’ll tell you that customer attitudes concerning the economy are impacting their buying habits. That’s not surprising, as monthly consumer sentiment data bears that out. Simply put, consumers are worried. So, how do retail...

08.18.2022

Episode 077 – Automated Resupply for Sleep

Resupply plays a pivotal role not only in sleep apnea patients’ therapy compliance and outcomes, but in the health of an HME provider’s business performance as well. That said, sleep resupply requires managing an enormous number of details for each...

08.09.2022

Episode 076 — Medicare and Seat Elevation Funding

Could Medicare finally fund seat elevation systems for power wheelchairs? For the first time ever, it’s looking possible. Medicare is opening its NCD up to review, which would mean a public comment period, and setting the stage for that was...

06.28.2022

Episode 075 – Telehealth Innovations for HME Providers

Up until the Covid-19 public health emergency was declared, telehealth wasn’t at the top of the list of HME providers’ priorities. Now, telehealth has become the norm in U.S. healthcare. Dr. Scott Martin, the medical director of TeleHealth Clinical Evals,...

06.23.2022

Episode 074 – Hospital Security and HME Sales

On June 1 an armed assailant entered Tulsa, Okla.’s Saint Francis Hospital and opened fire, killing four people and injuring a number of other victims. How has that event impacted hospital security, and how might that in turn impact HME...

06.01.2022

Episode 073 – Simplifying the Transition to Homecare

The transition to the homecare setting represents an omnipresent challenge for anyone involved in post-acute care — and particularly for HME providers. Vijay Kedar is the co-founder and CEO of Tomorrow Health, a company that has created a system that helps...

05.23.2022

Episode 072 – Product Protection Plans for Retail HME

We’re familiar with protection plans in our personal life, but there are some strong arguments why HME providers should consider offering them to their retail customers. MedGuard Protection Plans, is now offering these plans to the HME industry, and MedGuard...

05.16.2022

Episode 071 – The Key to Patient Engagement

The world of HME is all about patient relationships — putting the patient front and center in the process. Maintaining patient relationships and maximizing patient engagement results in improved compliance and increased referrals. And it turns out the key to...

05.13.2022

Episode 070 – The Return of VGM Heartland

VGM’s Heartland Conference is making its return as fully in-person event on June 13-15 in VGM’s hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, and is offering a lot of new features as well as familiar favorites. Conference Chair Jill Blaser visits the HMEB podcast...

05.03.2022

Episode 069 — Healthcare Vertical Integration and HME

Vertical integration is a term that gets tossed around in healthcare, but what does it mean for the home medical equipment industry, and what should providers know about the trend? Laura Williard of the American Association for Homecare explains the...

04.07.2022

Episode 068 — Whither Competitive Bidding Round 2024

Have you been wondering about Round 2024 of competitive bidding? You’re not alone. AAHomecare’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Kim Brummett sat down with HMEB during this week’s Medtrade West event to discuss how the next round of competitive bidding might play out, what...

03.24.2022

Episode 067 — H.R. 6641 and Preserving the 75/25 Rate

HME industry advocates are currently focused on two pivotal legislative fights: advancing H.R. 6641 and working with Senate contacts on approaches to preserve the current 75/25 blended rate for non-rural, non-CBA suppliers beyond the end of the public health emergency...

03.11.2022

Episode 066 — A Sneak Peek at Medtrade West

With Covid-19 on the wane, Medtrade West is returning to Arizona’s Phoenix Convention Center April 4-6, and the show offers some new features and creative tweaks on existing show content. In this episode, Medtrade Show Director York Schwab pulls back...

03.01.2022

Episode 065 — DME and CMS’s Vaccine Mandates: More than Meets the Eye

How well do you understand CMS’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for providers and suppliers? Are you sure? It turns out that, while the agency didn’t directly include DMEPOS suppliers and DME pharmacies, those businesses might still need to comply with the...

02.14.2022

Episode 064 — Respiratory: The Challenges of the Clinical Care Team During Covid

Covid-19 has forced a lot of change when it comes to respiratory services. How has the situation evolved for oxygen and respiratory providers and the clinical care team? John Medina, RRT, director of sales at CAIRE Inc., and David Lyman RRT,...

01.20.2022

Episode 063 — Your Plan for CMS’s Audit Ramp-up

HME providers initially got a brief break from Medicare claims audits during the Covid public health emergency, but after resuming audits, the HME industry will face expanded audit challenges in 2022. And Medicare isn’t the only source of claims audits,...

01.10.2022

Episode 062 — A New Approach to Sleep Mask Fitting

Sleep therapy is all about reinforcing patients’ compliance with their care, and the primary way to achieve that lies in ensuring they have the right mask for them. Comfort remains king. But there are several patient factors that mask fitting...

11.16.2021

Episode 061 — The COVID-19 Fight Continues

For the past 18 months, only one trend has impacted the entirety of the HME industry, and of course, that trend has been COVID-19. Joining the podcast to discuss how the pandemic has affected accreditation for HME providers are José...

11.04.2021

Episode 060 — Telehealth Staffing of Respiratory Therapists

Staffing solutions are becoming an increasingly important part of how HME providers run their business. They let providers more nimbly expand and contract their staff based on referral partner and patient needs while pursuing new market opportunities. One new staffing...

10.05.2021

Episode 059 — Equipment Management: Getting Back to Basics

Equipment management sits at the heart of nearly everything HME providers do, but recent trends such as Covid-19 and the increased emphasis on infection control have made this fundamental business process all the more critical. Founder and CEO of the...

09.28.2021

Episode 058 — Insourcing Your Best Employees

What happens when your best employee isn’t exactly your employee? HME staffing firm Tactical Back Office was born out of an HME provider seeking a new way to create flexible, scalable teams for HME providers. The goal was to find staff...

09.20.2021

Episode 057 — Outlining DME Policies & Procedures for Now — and the Future

HME providers and accrediting organizations share a common dilemma: Providers are trying to fill new and unique care segments as well as rapidly take advantage of market opportunities. They also face a constant flood change management challenges. At the same...

08.24.2021

Episode 056 — No-Touch Resupply

Any sleep provider will tell you resupply is a critical component of patient care and therapy outcomes, as well as a fundamental element of their business performance. They’ll also tell you it is a costly and complex workflow desperately in...

08.20.2021

Episode 055 — The Delta Variant and HME’s Supply Side

As the delta variant of COVID-19 makes a greater and greater impact on American healthcare, post-acute care and HME providers are really starting to feel its presence, particularly on the supply side of the industry. Spectrum Medical Supply CEO Steve Ackerman explains...

07.29.2021

Episode 054 — Securing Remote HME Patients & Workers

While COVID-19 ramped up the need for telehealth and remote connectivity for both HME patients and remote and distributed HME workforces, the need for security HME providers’ data predated the pandemic. Jerry Dennany, Chief Technology Officer for Brightree, discusses the...

07.20.2021

Episode 053 — Common Accreditation Site Survey Pitfalls and Corrective Action Plans

The year marks the big year for DMEPOS accreditation renewal for HME providers, and a major part of that process is the site survey. And, when it comes to those site surveys, there are some common pitfalls providers need to...

07.16.2021

Episode 052 — Top-Line Legislative, Regulatory & Payer Relations Issues

The return of Medtrade West also saw the return of the American Association for Homecare Update, in which HME Business’s David Kopf, as well as the audience, queried the association’s President and CEO Tom Ryan, along with Vice Presidents Jay Witter, Kim Brummett...

06.10.2021

Episode 051 — Five Referral Sales Challenges Facing HMEs Right Now

As U.S. healthcare emerges from the COVID-19 PHE, HME providers face five referral sales challenges that they must overcome if they want to succeed in the “new normal.” HME sales expert Ty Bello, CEO of HME sales coaching and consulting...

05.21.2021

Episode 050 — The Rise of the Value-Based HME

Brace yourself! COVID-19’s impact on U.S. healthcare might be fading, but not the patient demand. If anything, you can expect increased patient needs and a broadening set of requirements from your referral partners. Are you ready? Founder and CEO of...

04.27.2021

Episode 049 — COVID-19 Lessons From a Policies & Procedures POV

HME businesses have adapted to a considerable number of changes during COVID-19, but what ones will stick around for the long haul? Tim Safley, the program director for the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) has been in an interesting...

04.20.2021

Episode 048 — Telehealth Evals for Complex Rehab

When the COVID-19 pandemic, one sector of post-acute care that got hit hard was complex rehab, but there was an silver lining: CMS and other payers relaxed the guidelines around telehealth as a means to carrying out patient evaluations. One...

04.07.2021

Episode 047 – The Return of Medicare Claims Audits

Worried about audits? Maybe you should be. After hitting pause on claims audits during the COVID-19 PHE, CMS surprised everyone last fall by announcing it would resume those audits. Well now CMS has started restarting audits and audit expert Wayne...

03.25.2021

Episode 046 — COVID-19 and HME: Going Forward

One segment of HME that has typified the entire industry’s experience with handling the disease has been sleep therapy. Now that we are in the middle of the vaccine rollout, sleep providers — like all HME providers — are seeing...

03.16.2021

Episode 045 —The New Normal for HME Sales Going Forward

If providers learned anything from COVID-19, it’s that they need a more robust and professionally aggressive selling process. Ty Bello, CEO of HME sales coaching and consulting firm Team@Work, explains why the new normal for HME sales will be grounded in...

03.01.2021

Episode 044 — Hey, Where's My Stuff? Managing HME Inventory in the Field

When it comes to inventory management and equipment maintenance, HME providers contend with a unique dilemma: they have a considerable amount of inventory overhead, and much of it is out in the field. Simply put, where’s their stuff? And as...

02.25.2021

Episode 043 — Managing the Digital Patient Experience

Various healthcare and market trends have been pushing the digital patient experience toward the home medical equipment industry for a few years, but COVID-19 set that motion on fast-forward. So what is the digital patient experience, why is it important...

01.28.2021

Episode 042 — HME Sales Leadership and Strategy in 2021

It’s 2021, and it’s time to think about how sales strategy will change for HME this year. Last year brought COVID-19 and with it considerable upheaval when it comes to HME sales, but providers learned several strategic sales lessons and...

01.15.2021

Episode 041 — Renewing Your Accreditation in 2021

It's 2021, and with the New Year comes an accreditation renewal cycle for most DMEPOS providers. What do providers need to be thinking about this year and how should they be preparing? How has COVID-19 altered the accreditation process? What...

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