Marching toward the future

My co-worker Cath, a perennially positive person, recently pointed out that we’ve hit a small but meaningful yearly marker here in Maine: It was still light out at 5 p.m. Only for a hot minute, to be sure, but it’s a hopeful reminder that brighter days are around the corner. 

While working the phones, digging through press releases and shaking down manufacturers for product submissions, I, too, noticed that there does seem to be some light shining through. 

For starters, you’ve likely heard by now that the Lymphedema Treatment Act has finally passed, and providers are now able to serve these customers. Though there’s a lot of learning going on, there’s also a lot of excitement as people expand business opportunities and serve Medicare beneficiaries who should have had this covered long ago (“Providers get crash course in lymphedema”). 

On another note, over in the O&P world, there’s much ado about a proposal that would expand coverage of micro-processor-controlled knees to include qualified K2 patients. This is a Very Big Deal and one that AOPA’s Joe McTernan was thrilled to speak with me about. 

“It’s a huge leap forward for access,” he told me, a leap he and others have sought for years (“CMS proposal greenlights 'leap forward' in technology”). 

And finally, this is our Medtrade show issue and as always, we are thrilled to list the dozens of new products exhibitors are showing off. It’s a lot of work – and a lot of proofreading! This year’s listings include a lot of sleep therapy products, which took on a new light for me, what with the overhang of Philips’ recall and now its decision to exit the home oxygen and ventilator market in the U.S., a move that frustrated some and had others shrugging. 

One thing many of the sleep products and those in other categories had in common: They touted the future. The future of sleep, of breathing, of health care. You get the idea! 

With a spring in our steps and our eyes toward the future, we can only march toward the future. There’s no choice really, but it helps to do it with a sprinkle of Cath’s sunny optimism.