NSM increases impact with new committee

NASHVILLE - National Seating & Mobility has formed a Thought Leadership Committee to identify complex rehab-related issues— and do something about them.
“A couple of years ago, we recognized that NSM wanted to play a bigger role in evolving the industry, but we knew that couldn't be something that we did on our own,” said Stephanie Buckley, vice president of marketing at NSM.
Members include NSM ATPs and executives, as well as research, reimbursement, policy, and government relations experts from other organizations and institutions. Priorities range from fee-for-service vs. integrated risk sharing reimbursement models, to client outcomes measurement, to wheelchair ANSI/RESNA standards, to funding for essential technology enhancements, to required documentation standards for order submissions.
Due to the wide variety of topics, some solutions may involve pilot programs or case studies, while topics like the ANSI/RESNA standards could take years to develop.

“So our goal in 2020 is to at least start pilots, but right now we are discussing the details of what that's going to be,” said Buckley.
One immediate area of focus: The group plans to work closely with major players like NCART to hammer out a universal client outcomes measurement, setting a guide for the rest of the industry to follow.

“In the past, policy was driven by who had the best lobbyists and who could give the biggest contribution to a campaign, but now everything in our lives is data-driven, because you can pick up data everywhere,” said Mark Schmeler, associate professor and vice chair for education and training in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology at the University of Pittsburgh. “Off your phone, off your health records, everything.”
NSM only recently announced the committee, but it was actually established in July 2018,communicating monthly via conference calls.
“We didn't start talking about the committee until we had a year under our belts, because we wanted to see what was going to happen,” said Buckley.