Page 20 - HME Business, Jan/Feb 2019

Setting a Smart Strategy for 2019
into warehousing and delivering DME than sporting goods, electronics or clothes, but these are capabilities that a company like Amazon could add if it wished to do so.
Add to that the fact that both ridesharing services Lyft and Uber have released services that let healthcare professionals order rides for patients going to and from appointments, and we see another potential alternative distribution layer possibly coming into focus on the horizon. Smart providers will be monitoring these developments during 2019.
Financing
With the clear need to cater to clients’ retail needs, as well as their funded needs, providers need to give them options in order to pay. While financing is a familiar aspect to other retail marketplaces, consumer financing is not a common feature in the HME industry. Moreover, consumer financing repre- sents an ideal means to help providers to grow retail sales.
However, because good customer credit is not as prevalent in healthcare- related purchases, as it is in other industry, specialized healthcare credit companies to help patients purchase items, finance copays and conduct similar transactions have sprung up. A key option in that regard is healthcare
credit services provider CareCredit, which entered the HME marketplace in earnest in 2017. CareCredit works with a whole spectrum of healthcare specialists ranging from allergy and immunology all the way to vascular surgery and everything in between — including HME.
And we’ve seen CareCredit commit to the HME market. In 2017,
we saw the company enter multi-year agreement to help finance patient purchases of Applied Home Healthcare Equipment Inc.’s OxyGo line of portable oxygen concentrators. We also saw in September Pride Mobility offer in-house support for CareCredit purchases of its lift chairs, scooters and power wheelchairs.
Providers that have not investigated firms such as CareCredit in 2019 need to do so. As retail becomes more ubiquitous, including the purchase of more expensive items, such as portable oxygen concentrators, PAP therapy devices, and power mobility, providers need to ensure they also give their clients financial options.
Remote Patient Monitoring
This is a trend that we have identified before in the Big 10, and make no mistake, we are highlighting it again for 2019. In basic numbers, the popula- tion of remotely monitored patients grew by 51 percent to 4.9 million during 2015, according to researchers Berg Insight. More specifically to HME, connected medical devices, such as sleep therapy equipment, accounted for a whopping 71 percent of total remote patient monitoring revenues in 2015, according to Berg.
Ground zero for remote patient monitoring has been sleep therapy. PAP therapy systems provide a wealth of patient data that helps physicians fine- tune patient care, keep patients compliant with therapy, and demonstrate outcomes to funding sources.
But sleep isn’t the only HME segment seeing remote patient monitoring.
Already in diabetes care, glucometers are syncing with patient smartphones and using other wireless approaches to send patient performance metrics to reporting systems used by physicians. Also, in respiratory care, portable oxygen devices are beginning to send not only telemetry-type data to help providers remotely troubleshoot devices, but also sending patient usage data to referral partners..
Most recently, ResMed — a company that announced at the outset that it had monitored 1 billion sleeps — recently it spent $225 million to acquire Propeller Health, a company that makes tools for remotely monitoring medication use by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. Deals like that indicate that we will see remote patient monitoring expand particularly in oxygen during 2019 and beyond.
Convergence of Payers and Providers
On the funded side of healthcare, another larger trend is the integration between payers and providers will also shape the HME market in 2019. To be sure, we’ve seen some recent major deals in this regard: United Healthcare and dialysis giant Davita, pharmacy chain CVS and Aetna, and Humana and Kindred Healthcare.
These deals will change how healthcare is delivered. For instance, in
the $69 billion CVS-Aetna deal, Aetna is supposed to become a separate business unit within CVS with the goal of moving more of the patient’s care within CVS pharmacy locations. The lets CVS “own” more and more of the patient’s care and the patient relationship.
How providers need to respond to these sorts of trends remains to be seen as these sorts of relationships unfold over 2019 and beyond but we do know a couple things: First, providers need to focus on the unique value
that they bring to patients and HME customers. They need to shore up their niche and excel at it in a way no other business can. Second, they need to ensure that they remain flexible enough and diversified enough that they can adjust to any competition that might arise from these deals.
Next-Level Retail Products
By now, you’re likely noticing a prevailing megatrend impacting the HME space (and really healthcare as a whole): the retail sector is moving the needle. Whether its e-commerce or competition from outfits such as Amazon or healthcare-oriented financing, the wants and desires of clients are forcing healthcare as a whole to respond.
We’re seeing that in the HME products that are now being offered to customers in the post-acute market. In some cases, they could be major disruptors for existing product paradigms. For example, the DFree from Triple W is a wearable device for urinary incontinence patients. Much of incontinence stems from patients not realizing they need to go to the bath- room. The DFree use a mini ultrasound sensor and a small device to monitor a patient’s bladder. When the bladder reaches a predetermined level, the $499 DFree sends an alert via Bluetooth to the patient’s smartphone letting them know they need to go. If the device catches on, that could redefine the market for incontinence products — and patients’ lives.
And that’s just one example of how smart retail products that patients could impact the HME space. Expect more to come. Smart providers will keep their eyes peeled during 2019, because these items represent both a massive cash sales opportunity and the potential to redefine the markets for funded items. n
Deals such as United Healthcare and Davita, or CVS and Aetna are not isolated to specialized niches. They represent major players aiming to own more and more of the patient relationship.
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Management Solutions | Technology | Products
Undoubtedly, retail is moving healthcare. While funding sources might be slow to move, patients will seek out innovative retail solutions that fill their needs. Providers must ensure their product lineup reflects that.
With retail becoming an important component of not just HME, but healthcare as a whole, providers must ensure they support health- oriented credit programs if they want to maintain patient relationships.