Page 13 - HME Business, January 2018

Falling into Place
the misapplication of a 2006 budget neutrality offset balancing increased utilization for oxygen generating portable equipment with lower reim- bursement for stationary equipment. From that point onward, the industry
has been in a fast-paced push to get as many co-sponsors as possible before the end of the year. In fact, as this issue of HME Business goes to press, Congress is leaving Capitol Hill for its holiday recess and the bill has 90 co-sponsors.
That’s a good sign that the bill has solid momentum behind it. The key will be for providers to work with their state associations, the American Association for Homecare, and organizations such as the VGM Group and MED Group to continue the advocacy work needed to get H.R. 4229 to a point where it has a groundswell of Congressional support.
Some useful resources: The full text
of the legislative language is available
at bit.ly/2gZ5rOD and the bill can be monitored on the Library of Congress site at bit.ly/2znFN0j. Providers lobbying their lawmakers on behalf of the bill can obtain issue briefs on rural reimburse- ment relief at bit.ly/2AbhAsh and the O2 “double dip” cuts at bit.ly/2z9rdtI.
A quick view of the 2018 congressional calendar (found at bit.ly/2iXf7ds) shows that Congress will be in session more days this year, and January offers a solid opportunity to keep the bill moving with lawmakers returning on Jan. 3.
Senators and Representatives are ready to work in 2018. Providers backing H.R. 4229 should take advantage of that.
Remote Patient Monitoring
Remote patient monitoring and management is playing an increasingly critical role when it comes to post-acute care and forging long-lasting patient and referral partner relationships. That trend will only continue to broaden in 2018.
Let’s take a look at some numbers. To begin with, we already know that in the post-acute care landscape, sleep is the epicenter of remote patient monitoring. How big? At the outset of the 2017, sleep therapy equipment manufacturer ResMed reported that 1 billion nights of sleep data
Our annual BIG 10 list yields both new and maturing trends that will shape HME’s strategic landscape for 2018.
By David Kopf
Every January, HME Business outlines 10 key trends that will impact the year ahead. Like puzzle pieces falling into place, 2018 is start to form a picture of a year that will see ongoing trends further unfold, as well as new issues come into focus.
This year’s Big 10 includes:
1. H.R. 4229 and Protecting Rural Access 2. Remote Patient Monitoring
3. Accreditation Renewal
4. Billing Non-Assigned
5. Deeper Retail
6. e-Commerce
7. Distributed Provider Operations
8. Revenue Diversi cation
9. Mobility Market Growth
10. Medicare Red Tape Relief Project
If anything, the 2018 edition of the Big 10 shows a maturing industry that has become accustomed to change and is willing to capitalize on new opportunities while chipping away at ongoing prob- lems. Gone are the days of reactionary
panic. They have been replaced with more detached, strategic thinking.
So, without further introduction, let’s dive into how these trends will shape HME during 2018:
H.R. 4229 and Protecting Rural Access
In early November, Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa) introduced into the House the Protecting Home Oxygen & Medical Equipment Access Act, a bill that would provide relief to rural and non-bid areas that had been impacted by the national expansion of competitive bidding, as well as rectify the “double- dip” cuts on oxygen. Cataloged as H.R. 4229, it has two speci c thrusts:
• It would effectively roll back the
second round of cuts for non-bid area suppliers, effective retroactively to January 1, 2017 and through 2018.
• It would address rate cuts caused by
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