In brief: Tomorrow Health exits supply biz, Samaritan Medical sells to Norco 

NEW YORK – Tomorrow Health has closed its first-party HME supply business to “remove barriers and unlock new opportunities” for its network of home-based care providers, the company has announced. 

Tomorrow Health's decision to concentrate on its technology for supplier partners comes as the broader health care ecosystem shifts its strategic priorities and seeks greater support in enabling the delivery and reimbursement of quality home-based care, it says. 

"HME suppliers are a critical lever to shift care to the home, which is often overlooked by payors," Vijay Kedar, CEO and co-Founder, Tomorrow Health. “Tomorrow Health's technology and unique position with payers enables change end-to-end, supporting everything from prescription to reimbursement while arming suppliers with valuable insights that can drive business growth and ensure positive experiences for every single stakeholder." 

Tomorrow Health’s business model has evolved into a connective technology and service layer that coordinates care seamlessly across payers, referring providers, patients and home-based care suppliers. Its approach, built on its prior learnings as an HME supplier business, has delivered technology that it says “supercharges” home-based care provider growth via high-quality, cost-effective care.  

The company's supplier partners include AdaptHealth, Apria, Home Care Delivered, Lincare, and Rotech Healthcare.   

"Our partnership with Tomorrow Health enables us to automate and dramatically scale Home Care Delivered's best-in-class customer onboarding process, while simultaneously allowing us to drive the clinical, quality, and financial outcomes that are needed by patients, their healthcare providers, and payers," said Lowell Price, senior vice president of business development and chief growth officer of Home Care Delivered. "While there are other e-platforms in the market today that we support, none are more strategically aligned to us in both commitment and capability to delivering value-based care in DME than Tomorrow Health. We couldn't be more excited about our partnership." 

Samaritan Medical Supplies sells to Norco Medical 

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Samaritan Health Services has completed the sale of its durable medical equipment business, Samaritan Medical Supplies, to Boise, Idaho-based Norco Medical.  

“We chose Norco for several reasons, but primarily because they are a well-established family- and employee-owned company based in the Northwest that is highly focused on the customers and its employees who serve them,” said Marty Cahill, CEO of Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital and Samaritan Medical Supplies. “We anticipate that Norco will do an excellent job carrying on Samaritan’s tradition of personalized service.” 

Norco has more than 70 locations in seven Western states. It plans to maintain the current Samaritan Medical Supplies locations in Corvallis, Lebanon and Newport as it integrates the company into its operations. 

Employees at Samaritan Medical Supplies who work at all four locations had the option of transitioning to Norco or seeking other employment opportunities within Samaritan. 

NCPA applauds House passage of PATIENT Act 

WASHINGTON – The National Community Pharmacists Association welcomes the passage of the Promoting Access to Treatments and Increasing Extremely Needed Transparency (PATIENT) Act, H.R. 3561, by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The PATIENT Act, which passed the committee 49-0, includes several provisions vital to lowering prescription drug costs and bringing transparency to the practices of pharmacy benefit managers, the NCPA says. “Patients and community pharmacies have been advocating aggressively for years for reforms and insight into PBM practices,” said Anne Cassity, senior vice president of government affairs at NCPA. “This comprehensive package would take significant strides forward in terms of federal oversight, and NCPA is proud to support it. We’re grateful to the committee for its work and hope the full House will soon advance it.” NCPA-supported provisions within the bill include: The Drug Price Transparency in Medicaid Act (H.R. 1613); The PBM Accountability Act (H.R. 2679); and The Promoting Transparency and Healthy Competition in Medicare Act (H.R. 3282). 

Quality Biomedical names president 

BOULDER, Colo. - Quality Biomedical has named Will Ross president and COO. He has served as COO since 2021 and before that led the company's marketing efforts. “Will’s leadership brings focus and clarity to our growth goals, as we continue to provide the best service and technology to our customers,” said PK Bala, CEO. As COO, Ross has been responsible for guiding the company’s operations and overseeing the creation of new service solutions. He says technology like Quality Biomedical’s QTag, a QR-code label that’s put onto devices that need service and can be scanned with a phone, will play a big role in the company’s future. “If you look at other industries – from IT to fast food restaurants – they’re using mobile devices to improve workflow and get more done with less staff,” he said. “Health care should be doing this too, but for some reason it has lagged. We aim to change that and improve productivity and profitability when it comes to health care companies managing their respiratory equipment. We’ve figured out how to apply technology to enable better service.” 

AIC adds drug to treat Alzheimer’s 

DALLAS – Advanced Infusion Care, a division of AIS Healthcare, now offers LEQEMBI, developed by Eisai Co., for the treatment of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The nationally accredited home infusion teams at AIC collaborate closely with physicians to provide specialized infusion services to patients in their home or at an infusion suite setting. This new therapy expands the company's ability to better serve Alzheimer's patients. “We’re proud to be able to add LEQEMBI to our growing list of infusion therapies,” said Jud Hall, President at AIC. “This therapy from Eisai can help us provide a new treatment option for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.” AIS Healthcare is dually accredited by URAC and the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC). 

Apria reports data breach 

INDIANAPOLIS – Apria Healthcare is providing notice of a data breach that involved some personal information. On Sept. 1, 2021, Apria received a notification regarding access to select Apria systems by an unauthorized third party. The company says it took immediate action to mitigate the incident, including working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and hiring a forensic investigation team to investigate and resolve the incident. Based on its investigation and discussions with law enforcement, Apria believes the purpose of the unauthorized access was to fraudulently obtain funds from Apria and not to access personal information of its patients or employees. The company says there is no evidence of funds removed, and it is not aware of the misuse of personal information related to this incident. The company says information potentially accessed in the incident varied for each individual and may have included personal, medical, health insurance or financial information, and in some limited cases, Social Security numbers. Apria is notifying individuals whose information may have been accessed and is providing complimentary identity protection services. 

Option Care nabs exclusive distribution contract for Vyjuvek 

BANNOCKBURN, Ill. – Option Care Health has been selected by Krystal Biotech as part of a limited distribution specialty pharmacy network for Vyjuvek, which was recently approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for the treatment of patients with dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB). Through its national footprint of more than 95 specialty pharmacies, Option Care will serve as the only specialty pharmacy provider for mixing and delivering prepared Vyjuvek gel administration syringes to professional health care and home settings. “We are honored to work with Krystal Biotech in providing access to this novel treatment, which is expected to help children and adults suffering from a rare disease,” said John Rademacher, president and CEO of Option Care. “The ability to administer this non-invasive treatment in the comfort of one’s home will help ensure that this medicine gets to those who need it the most.” Option Care will collaborate with Amedisys on this effort, with Amedisys nurses delivering and administering the drug to patients. Amedisys is a leading health care at home company that has a strong presence in hospital-at-home, home health, hospice, palliative, and high-acuity care services. Option Care announced in early May that it entered into a merger agreement with Amedisys.  

NHIA to hold second Payor Summit 

Alexandria, Va. – The National Home Infusion Association will hold its second annual Payor Summit Aug. 23, 2023, in Dallas. The event is designed to bring together representatives from commercial health insurance plans with home and specialty infusion leaders to discuss opportunities and challenges facing the industry now and in the future. The 2023 summit will focus on helping payers leverage the home and alternate site of care to manage drug spend; improve patient access; improve health equity by reaching rural, disabled, and transportation-limited populations; improve quality and patient experience; and reduce administrative burden. This will include a review of the recommendations from the 2022 NHIA Payor Summit. “Last year, NHIA set out to deepen understanding between health plans and providers and our inaugural summit resulted in concrete policy recommendations that can create efficiencies, reduce hospitalizations, and improve patient access to home and alternate site infusion,” said Connie Sullivan, BSPharm, president and CEO. “This year, we look forward to continuing the dialogue.” Interested payers can learn more on the Payor Summit website and register here.