The year in blogs

Managing Editor Theresa will attest that I've been trying to write a blog for a few days now. Sometimes it comes easy; sometimes it doesn't.

If you're Theresa, you don't force these things. But I have a to-do list that's getting longer and a new conference to avoid programming (ahem), so each day this week, at lunch, I've come back to writing this blog.

One of my go-to blogs in these situations is a list of the most read stories for the most recent year, but I already did that in September. (I must have been really desperate then; who does a year-in-review when there are still three months left in the year?)

But what about the most read blogs of the year? I haven't done that yet and since it's December I feel it's a more than valid topic.

Each of the three of us here at HME News tries to blog once per week. Over the course of a year, that's 156 blogs. That's a pretty good pool to dive into.

So here are the top blogs from each of the three of us for 2015:

From Editor Liz: “Significant shuffling in the top 10 list of Medicare providers.” Everyone loves to know what the nationals are up to and this list is one way to find out. Lincare, Apria Healthcare and American HomePatient are all here, but not Rotech Healthcare. Of the providers on the list this year compared to last year, Apria saw the biggest drop in allowed charges ($304 million in 2013 and $247 million in 2014), and Zoll Services (defibrillators, catheters and vents) was the biggest mover (No. 11 in 2013 and No. 6 in 2014).

Close second: “CMS's bull's eye on vents.”

From Managing Editor Theresa: “57 channels and a CPAP machine.” Is the humble CPAP becoming mainstream? Yes, Theresa argues in this blog mixing HME and popular culture, like only she can do.

From Associate Editor Tracy Orzel: “Could a loner be an HME provider?” Tracy, who enjoys her alone time (this must be why she disappears from her desk every day for half an hour), explores whether the majority of HME providers are introverts or extroverts.

UPDATE: As it turns out, that blog from Tracy isn't from Tracy, but from her predecessor's predecessor (Thank you HME News website and Google Analytics). The most read blog actually written by Tracy is "Breaking: Quantum Rehab reveals newest hire." In this blog, she writes about the dog that stole the spotlight in Pride Mobility's booth at Medtrade this year.