Today’s guest is Brad Smith, a managing partner at Vertess. Smith joins HME News in 10 to talk about why deal activity was slower than he anticipated in Q1 – his firm closed three deals – but will heat up, particularly in Q2 and Q4. He also talks about the role of the $2 trillion worth of liquidity in the financial market right now and valuations that are “creeping down but still robust.”

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Today’s guest is Boone Lockard, the new director of VGM Respiratory, who has spent 12 years working on both the provider and manufacturer aisles of the industry. Lockard joins HME News in 10 to talk about why there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for the CPAP market, how the new NCD for oxygen will be a “big win” and why there’s promise in resurging value-based care models.

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Today’s guest is Laura Williard, vice president of payer relations for AAHomecare. Williard joins HME News in 10 to talk about how the growing Medicare Advantage market creates opportunities for HME providers. With more insurers entering the market – many of them smaller and more willing to think outside the box – providers have a better chance of getting in-network, developing close relationships, and shaping everything from policies to reimbursement levels.

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Today’s guest is Dexter Braff, president of The Braff Group, a health care M&A advisory firm. Braff joins HME News in 10 to talk about Owens & Minor’s planned acquisition of Apria and how the deal represents the “end of an era” for M&A in the HME industry. Listen to find out why the deal’s estimated $1.45 billion value is not what it seems and how it’s another sign of the seismic shift toward more care in the home.

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Today’s guest is Andrea Stark, the founder and head of reimbursement at MiraVista LLC. Andrea joins HME News in 10 to talk about the biggest development in the HME industry in 2021: a new national coverage determination for home oxygen therapy that expands coverage to acute conditions and cluster headaches, and eliminates the CMN requirement. “We haven’t experienced a coverage expansion like this in recent history,” she says. Listen to find out how the new NCD has ripple effects on a provider’s operational and compliance procedures and why it should give providers “a lot more confidence” when it comes to audits.

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Hear Jonathan Sadock talk about how the momentum for M&A in HME is the strongest it has been since 2011, when Medicare launched its competitive bidding program. He says well-established, profitable and contractually strong HME companies stand to benefit in an M&A market where demand for their “essential services” is at an all-time high. Find out how he describes the M&A market in one word, what he sees as the biggest deal this year and more.

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Today’s guest is Theresa Flaherty, managing editor of HME News, who is recently back from Medtrade East. Theresa talks about: What it was like to re-connect in Atlanta, the industry’s “home base”; why supply chain constraints, not competitive bidding, are the industry’s top concern; and how young blood and fresh ideas are reinvigorating HME.

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Linda Rouse O’Neill, vice president of supply chain policy and executive branch relations for the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA), talks about “creative partnerships” between distributors and providers to increase inventories and identify substitutions in the face of difficult and prolonged supply chain constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She talks about how we got here – “That is a $10 million question right there” – and just how bad it is. “When you think about COVID and (the bottlenecks at) our West Coast ports – the social distancing and protocols and illness with workers – they’re struggling like every industry to balance all of that and make sure people are working, so that’s really made transportation a health care issue at this point,” she says. “I think we can all agree that we need to move those health care products in an expedited way.” 

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Welcome to a special episode of HME News in 10 sponsored and developed by McKesson. 

Our guest is Kris Srinivasan, director of payer relations for the company. He talks about how McKesson can help HME providers bring value to the health care continuum with its focus on speaking with a unified voice and improving patient outcomes. For more information on McKesson, go to mms.mckesson.com.

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Theresa Flaherty, managing editor of HME News, joins us from Medtrade West to talk about the vibe at the HME industry’s first in-person event since the COVID-19 pandemic – lots of “warm feelings,” she says – and the biggest buzzwords – competitive bidding and telehealth. Mostly, attendees at the show just wanted to keep “learning and moving and growing,” she says. 

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