Lifestyle Mobility Aids: Expanding – and betting on HME providers 

ST. PETERSBURGH, Fla. – Lifestyle Mobility Aids is expanding its footprint beyond Florida and its product portfolio beyond mobility aids with long-time industry exec Doug Francis as its new leader. 

The company recently opened a 40,000-square-foot distribution center in Memphis, Tenn., and launched a portable oxygen concentrator in December. 

“Memphis opens up distribution to a big piece of the country,” said Francis, president and CEO. “We can service about 80% of the country in two to three days from there.” 

Francis was formerly a principal and co-founder of Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare. He left the company in 2018, took a few years off, formed Rhythm Healthcare and then merged it with Lifestyle Mobility Aids. 

The POC is the first of a family of products that Lifestyle Mobility Aids will launch in the COPD disease management space. Up next: a 5-liter stationary oxygen concentrator in February and a range of aerosol therapy devices in the first quarter, Francis says. 

“We’re expanding into more clinically complex areas,” he said. 

Lifestyle Mobility Aids has also “recalibrated” its existing product portfolio, expanding its range of rollators and updating its range of wheelchairs, Francis says. 

“We wanted the portfolio to be less retail focused, and more applicable to Medicare and reimbursement,” he said. 

What really sets apart Lifestyle Mobility Aids from its competitors, however, is the company’s commitment to HME providers, Francis says. The company won’t sell direct to consumer or to big-box retailers, opting instead to focus on developing programs to help providers with their revenue growth, cash flow and other parts of their business.  

“We’re drawing a line in the sand about who our customer is – the provider,” he said. “There is big business to be had with Amazon and Walmart, but that’s not our customer. We’re going to align with and build programs for the provider.” 

Francis believes HME providers can beat an Amazon or a Walmart on most days – if they reframe how they see themselves. 

“We’ve been transactional; we’ve been willing to deliver the prescriptions,” he said. “But we haven’t thought to capturing everything else. There’s still big opportunity for growth if we get this right and capture the opportunity in its entirety.”