Hme Business Podcast

After a long career in business-to-business media and the HME industry, HME Business Publisher Karen Cavallo is retiring. Executive Editor David Kopf — who will move into Karen’s role as publisher — sits down with Karen to talk about her storied career in media and the home medical equipment industry. The two reflect on the major changes that have occurred both in HME and media, and the interesting ways those changes have interplayed with one another over the years.

John Gallagher, vice president of VGM Government Relations, and Ronda Buhrmester, Director of Reimbursement for VGM, discuss CMS’s decision to change the zip code designations for 381 zip codes. Then, Ty Bello, president and founder of HME sales training and coaching company Team@Work, and Jonathan Walters, vice president of Leadership Development & CRT Coaching, share their insights into new approaches to HME sales strategy, including driving new business by tapping into the CRT market.

In this episode, Seth Johnson, senior vice president of government relations for both Quantum Rehab and Pride Mobility Products, talks about Quantum Rehab’s iLevel. Now more than 25,000 consumers use the technology, which lets users of complex rehab power wheelchairs travel at walking speeds while their seats are elevated up to 12 inches. Moreover, various payers are funding it. The big question is when will Medicare join them? After that, Gary Sheehan, president and CEO of Cape Medical Supply Inc., talks about how his sleep business work to improve patient compliance with their sleep therapy.

Each spring, the American Association for Homecare hosts its Washington Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. to help providers meet with their lawmakers and staff on behalf of the industry. This year’s event, held on May 22 and 23, slated more than 300 meetings covering a packed agenda of items ranging from rural relief, to protecting respiratory concerns, to CRT. In this episode, a variety of industry advocates talk about their meetings, the industry’s priorities, and how all providers can help in the weeks after the event.

This special episode examines how providers of more than sleep therapy supplies—for example, incontinence, diabetic supply, and enteral nutrition—can expand and optimize their resupply programs to increase revenues and patient care. Executive Editor David Kopf interviews Morgan Dopplick, the Director of Connect Operations for Brightree, and Margaret Lindskog, the Director of Operations for ReSupply Live Call at Brightree, about how providers can maximize resupply best practices and technology innovations.

Industry legislative expert Cara Bachenheimer of industry law firm Brown & Fortunato and General Counsel to the American Association for Homecare, offers key details on Round 2021; how providers should prepare; and a new educational site to help them. Also, AAHomecare President and CEO Tom Ryan and NCART Executive Director Don Clayback discuss their organizations’ upcoming events.

Longtime HME Business contributor Sandra Canally, founder and CEO of accreditation organization The Compliance Team, chats with Executive Editor David Kopf about where accreditation has been, where it is going with trends such as the bid gap, the emergence of specialized accreditation, and how these services are helping providers sharpen their edge while improving outcomes for patients and referrals. She even gives us a sneak peek into a soon-to-come service from The Compliance Team.

Nikki Jensen, vice president of Essentially Women, joins HME Business Executive Editor David Kopf again, this time to discuss The Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act, why Medicare needs to fund custom breast prostheses, and the #LetHerDecide awareness and advocacy campaign. Then Wayne van Halem, president and founder of audit consulting firm The van Halem Group gives listeners the low-down on six-year lookback audits and what they need to know about them.

HME providers are constantly hunting for opportunities to diversify and broaden their revenues, and two such openings are managed care contracts and women’s health. HME Business Editor David Kopf sits down with Jeffrey S. Baird, Esq., the chairman of the Health Care Group at law firm Brown & Fortunato P.C., to learn more about managed care contracts — as well as a series of articles he’s written for HMEB on the topic — and he also chats with Nikki Jensen, vice president of Essentially Women, to learn more about her organization and the opportunities in women’s health.

The 116th Congress has been in session for a few weeks now, so HME Business Editor David Kopf checks in with Tom Ryan of the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) and Don Clayback from the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology (NCART) to find out what they have in the works in terms of their legislative and regulatory agendas for 2019.

To kick off the HME Business Podcast, host of the podcast and editor of HME Business Magazine David Kopf gives some insight into the mission and future of the podcast. He is joined by HME sales expert Ty Bello, who offers listeners some takeaways as to what providers should be doing for strategic sales planning.