Viemed excels at balancing act

LAFAYETTE, La. – Viemed Healthcare is already seeing gains from its recent acquisition of Home Medical Products and the company is “orchestrating the next chapter of its growth story,” said CEO Casey Hoyt. 

Viemed finalized the acquisition of Tennessee-based HMP on June 1 and has worked diligently to integrate its operations and employees, Hoyt says. 

“We closed the deal and had our team up at their offices the following week and training their folks on how to walk and talk the Viemed way from selling our complex respiratory model, which is ventilation,” he said. “And they hit record numbers in month 1 for vents. So, we really got jazzed about that.” 

HMP, which was founded in September 2004, generated net revenues of approximately $28 million last year. It currently has offices throughout Tennessee, and in Alabama and Mississippi. 

The success of Viemed’s HMP transaction and integration could serve as a template for future deals, but the company isn’t necessarily looking to make another buy immediately, said CFO Todd Zehnder. 

“The main thing is to do it right, get it integrated, get the revenue synergies – all while making sure our organic growth doesn't get impacted,” he said. “And that's the main thing we've been able to do. So, we're looking forward to the next one. When it comes, we'll see.” 

Viemed’s organic growth also continues to be strong, increasing 23% during the quarter, said Zehnder. 

“We stay optimistic that we will be able to continue our high organic growth rates, as well as continue our evaluation of inorganic opportunities,” he said. 

Driving that organic growth is an active network development team that Hoyt says has done “a hell of a job” with payers this year, adding 5 million lives year-to-date and another 5 million in development. 

“We still have payer struggles that are typically with the big guys, United and Humana are tough cookies for us,” he said. “We do some out-of-network work for them, but we have great opportunities to get those big guys on board.” 

Humana’s recent contracts with AdaptHealth and Rotech to provide HME to about 1 million Medicare Advantage HMO members won’t have a noticeable impact on Viemed for the foreseeable future, says Hoyt. 

“It doesn't give us much angst, just because we really weren't even servicing those patients in the first place,” he said. “But yeah, we'll just have to wait and see how that works out.”