Page 4 - HME Business, April 2020

Editor’s Note
Coping With COVID-19
The HME industry starts reacting to a pandemic that threatens many vulnerable patient groups.
Volume 27 Number 3 April 2020
The beginning of March was
a strange time for travel. The week of March 8 marked both Medtrade Spring in Las Vegas and the International Seating Symposium in Vancouver, and my journey quickly took on an odd tone. My flight from Orange County, Calif. to Sin City had 14 people on it. The Vegas airport was empty, and
I had my pick of the taxis, rather than waiting in a Disney-like line at the cab stand.
It wasn’t until HMEB sales manager Rick Neigher and I had our booth set up at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center that we noticed the adjacent casino and resort were pretty empty. When I flew Wednesday night from Vegas to LAX and then up to British Columbia, it finally dawned on me that COVID-19 had hit North America. And by the time my Friday trip home was in complete disarray due to the consolidated flights, my wife was texting me photos of empty toilet paper shelves at the local grocery store.
As I write this column, it’s roughly a week later, and it feels like an entirely different world. The NCAA canceled its 2020 tournament. SXSW and Coachella have postponed. Princess Cruises has suspended operations. The entire country of Italy is on lockdown. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. And, it is likely that well before you read this, Pres. Trump will have declared a National Emergency so that health- care funding can more freely flow to Medicaid programs to bolster front-line testing and care.
Not surprisingly, COVID-19 is impacting HME. For starters, after CMS released broad statements regarding how to work with patients and how
to help keep staff safe from the disease using personal protective equipment (PPE), the American Association for Homecare was working with CMS to get more guidance on ways to address issues specific to HME. This included:
• Relaxing requirements for chronic lung disease for the short-term provision of home oxygen.
• The potential use of telehealth to meet require- ments for face-to-face documentation and ongoing medical necessity.
“We also need CMS to suspend adding non- invasive ventilators from Round 2021 of the competitive bidding program and to protect access to this critical therapy. It also needs to prioritize provisions of PPE for providers who are providing
equipment and supplies to COVID-19 patients in their homes,” Tom Ryan, president and CEO of AAHomecare, told me. He added that CMS should allow coverage for short-term-use oxygen patients who will need to be treated with oxygen after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
Additionally, AAHomecare’s regulatory staff and its Regulatory Council are meeting early next week to develop a list of priority regulatory issues and questions, and will then approach CMS with that list, according to Kim Brummett, vice president of Regulatory Affairs for the association.
Where industry events are concerned, some state associations started postponing their events. The Association for Tennessee Home Oxygen & Medical Equipment Services (ATHOMES) post- poned its ATHOMES Spring Conference, previ- ously scheduled for March 19-20 in Nashville, Tenn., to a “future date yet to be determined.” Also, the Northeast Medical Equipment Providers (NEMEP) Association announced that its annual conference and exhibit show, planned for April 1-2 in Tarrytown, N.Y., has been postponed due to concerns over the coronavirus.
On the provider side of COVID-19, many HME businesses are starting to shape their response in terms of how they work with patients and within their communities.
“We had a general staff meeting this week to review our infection control protocols, discuss the importance of strict adherence to using Universal Precautions, and implementing some temporary extra precautions for the foreseeable future,” Stephen Ackerman, CEO of Spectrum Medical Inc. in Silver Spring, Md., commented to me in an email. “... We are talking a lot to make sure infor- mation stays current and in perspective.”
I don’t know where this is headed, but we have ventured into all-new territory, and many post- acute patients are the most vulnerable in terms of COVID-19. Fortunately, they have HME providers on their side.
David Kopf
Publisher & Executive Editor HME Business
Executive Editor Associate Content Editor
Publication Design Production Coordinator
Director of Online Product Development
Publisher
Group Sales Manager
David Kopf
(949) 265-1561
Haley Samsel (972) 687-6739
Wendy Byle, Byle Design Teresa Antonio
Marlin Mowatt David Kopf
(949) 265-1561 Rick Neigher (818) 597-9029
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Steve Ackerman
President Spectrum Medical
Jeffrey S. Baird, Esq.
Chairman of the Health Care Group of Brown & Fortunato, P.C.
Cara Bachenheimer
Lobbyist/Government Affairs for Brown & Fortunato, P.C.
Rob Baumhover
Director of Retail Services for VGM Retail Services
Ty Bello, RCC
President and Founder Team@Work
Rob Boeye
Executive Vice President of HME Brightree LLC
Sandra Canally
President
The Compliance Team Inc.
John Letizia
President of Laurel Medical Supplies Inc.
Joe Lewarski
Vice President of Global Respiratory and Sleep Drive Devilbiss
Faisal “RJ” Poonawala
President Spring Branch Medical Supply
Ron Resnick
President Blue Chip Medical Products Inc.
Tom Ryan
President and CEO AAHomecare
Gary Sheehan, MBA
President and CEO Cape Medical Supply
Wayne van Halem
President and Founder The van Halem Group LLC
INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS GROUP
President & Group Publisher
Group Circulation Director Group Marketing Director
Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Technology Officer
Executive Vice President
REACHING THE STAFF
Kevin O’Grady
Irene Fincher Susan May
Rajeev Kapur Sanjay Tanwani Erik A. Lindgren
Michael J. Valenti
Editors can be reached via e-mail, fax, telephone, or mail. A list of editors and contact information is at www.hme-business.com.
Email: email is routed to individuals’ desktops. Please use the following form: firstnameinitial,lastname@1105media.com. Do not include a middle name or middle initials.
Telephone: The switchboard is open weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. After 5:30 p.m. you will be directed to individual extensions.
Dallas Office: 14901 Quorum Drive, Suite 425, Dallas, TX 75254 (972) 687-6700; Fax: (972) 687-6799; www.1105media.com
Corporate Phone: (818) 814-5200; Fax: (818) 734-1522
4 HMEBusiness | April 2020 | hme-business.com
Management Solutions | Technology | Products