Blogs

“You have mild sleep apnea.” Wait, what?!  After several months of appointment scheduling, first with my primary care physician who, to her credit, took my sleep concerns very seriously, and then with the sleep doc (sleep doctors are a busy lot!) and then a home sleep study (thank you, WatchPAT), the verdict was in.  You see, I wake up several times a night, exacerbated by an inability to then fall back asleep. I am, in other words, tired.   However, as a...

As we were barreling toward yet another writing deadline in early September, I messaged Editor Liz to say: “It's funny, I usually pawn off new location" stories on (Contributing Writer) Tracy, but I have enjoyed the three interviews in a row I did for October, all with companies we haven't talked to before.”  I always enjoy talking to providers, but I tend to direct these more focused stories to Tracy because they are easier (and, frankly, a little more fun) to write....

In the time we reported on the November issue (roughly three weeks), not one but two major hurricanes hit the Southeast. Both made landfall in Florida, but one, Hurricane Helene also had an impact as far north as Tennessee and western North Carolina. After Hurricane Helene, provider Brian Wilson told us his delivery techs described the Asheville, N.C., area like this: “It’s like an atomic bomb went off.” When storms like these strike, HME providers are particularly impacted. The...

Just as we were putting the final touches on the October issue, Apple announced that its new smartwatch would include a sleep apnea feature.  We were expecting this. Earlier this year, Samsung Electronics announced that the sleep apnea feature on the Samsung Health Monitor app had received de novo authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and everyone expected that Apple and Google were not far behind.  Following Samsung’s announcement, a consistent topic of...

HME stakeholders have been fighting Medicare Advantage for some time, particularly when it comes to these plans not following Medicare policy and coverage for complex rehab technology and non-invasive ventilators, two product categories for patients with the greatest needs.  At the Heartland Conference in June, there was even a panel discussion titled “Dealing with Medicare DISadvantage Plans - Are You Ready, Martha?” Stakeholders continue to take it up a notch.  AAHomecare...

Recently, I talked to a sleep medicine specialist about the possibilities of AI-enabled technology for that patient population; the next I was talking to a diabetes company about the AI-enabled technology for those patients.  I can’t open my inbox without multiple daily pitches on the latest AI technology. It’s all very heady stuff for this writer who, until recently, found my eyes glazing over every time I heard the word algorithm.   But, the more people use it,...

I had a conversation recently with someone who has been in the HME industry for quite some time – as a vendor and as a provider – and he said something to the effect of: The industry needs to give up on reimbursement getting better and lean into technology to make what little reimbursement there is more profitable.  That’s not a hard line I would draw – and, of course, neither would AAHomecare and other industry stakeholders.  In fact, stakeholders headed to Capitol...

There’s an old adage in the news biz: “If it bleeds, it leads.”  While I’ll admit there’s some truth to that, it doesn’t mean reporters enjoy it. Now, granted, we here at HME News are not exactly competing with the big guys out there, but we have our fair share of less than stellar news we have to report on and publish. And it’s not unusual for Editor Liz and I to bat headline ideas back and forth (“does this sound too negative?”) to ensure...

As is par for the course these days, my inbox this month has been filled with diabetes tech announcements: Edgepark is adding a new insulin delivery system to its portfolio, Insulet’s Omnipod is fueling growth and Ascensia is expanding access to its Eversense device by extending its PASS program, which offers a substantial discount for users.  That last one is key: All the technology in the world won’t help if it’s too expensive for people to acquire. And this stuff is expensive...

When Change Healthcare acknowledged that it had been hacked by a “threat actor” named “BlackCat” and subsequently had to disconnect its systems, we were fairly certain it would be the subject of the cartoon and HME Newspoll for the April issue.  There were other ideas, of course – Theresa and I are nothing but a font of content, are we not? – including a poll on the impact on the HME industry of Dexcom’s plans to offer a continuous glucose monitoring...