Who do you want to rub elbows with?

Health care is becoming less siloed.

In my eyes, one of the larger goals of healthcare reform is to break down the barriers between different healthcare providers. A hospital can no longer operate in a silo. Because of the pressures to reduce readmission rates, it has to make it its business to know what patients are doing when they're outside of its four walls. To do that, it needs help from other healthcare providers. Skilled nursing facilities. Home medical equipment providers.

The increasing interconnectedness among healthcare providers has been a focus of the HME News Business Summit for a number of years. This year is no different, with North Highland Company's Fletcher Lance, who has worked with the likes of Cigna and the Hospital Corporation of America, set to talk about how healthcare reform is reshaping the delivery models that payers and providers use to provide care.

While providing this big picture perspective is a hallmark of the Summit, for attendees, we target providers from within the HME industry. The crème of the crop, we like to call them. The innovators and disrupters.

There's a definite need to rub elbows with your own kind. Who better than other HME providers to share experiences with and bounce ideas off of?

But in another event, in another place, what if you could also rub elbows with other healthcare providers. Say, case managers and discharge planners.

Would this be valuable? How would you want to interact with other healthcare providers in a conference setting? What type of education would appeal to this different, but connected, group of providers?

We're doing some research on how to make this happen. We'd love to hear your thoughts.