Page 6 - HME Business, January/February 2021

Editor’s Note
The Industry That Could
HME providers have demonstrated their crucial role in American healthcare during COVID-19.
Have you ever looked at a fortune teller’s tarot deck? There’s a card in there that depicts a happy go lucky guy walking along. Usually, he’s carrying a bindle stick over his shoulder or playing the flute, and there’s often a dog prancing around his feet. He’s also about to step right off a cliff.
The card is known as The Fool, and while there are all sorts of deeper — and far less scary — meanings in the interpretation of the card, I confess I feel a strong kinship with a grinning dip who’s unaware of his imminent doom.
That certainly was me back around late February and early March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was only hinting to the United States at how bad things were
going to get. Sure, we all saw the images of forced home isolation and overnight hospital construction in China, but I think I was far more focused on Netflix’s next binge watch at the time. The notion of people tossing tiny RNA virus cells back and forth every time they cough, sneezed, sang, or even spoke was the furthest thing from my mind.
Yeah, The Fool sounds just about right. It hasn’t even been a year, and as I type this column, the United States is closing in on half a million fatalities.
That said, many in the industry weren’t fools at all. From the moment the World Health Organization first announced the pandemic, many providers realized that how they provided care, how they conducted business, how they sourced equipment, and how they managed their employees were all going to change in significant ways. And COVID-19 continues to impact the industry, as our story on Accreditation Renewal (page 8), annual Big 10 list (page 12), and feature on the trends affecting oxygen providers (page 20), all demonstrate.
Armed with that foresight, HME providers began planning and rolling out protocols and procedures that would help them rapidly adapt and respond to those COVID-19- related changes. They weren’t alone, either. Manufacturers knew that they too would face supply constraints, and industry advocates knew that they would have to work on the regulatory and legislative front to ensure that providers to secure waivers and aid that would help providers continue providing services.
The result? The industry’s rapid reaction let it play what is arguably a heroic role in American healthcare. The going hasn’t been easy, but providers could continue assisting the patient groups they serve and become a vital element in the national disease response as hospitals sought to care for far greater numbers of patients in the home setting.
So why am I saying all this? Because the industry should never let regulators and lawmakers forget what this industry has contributed during the public health emer- gency. At the outset of every email, visit to a district office, or phone call to a legislator’s health staffer, industry stakeholders must underscore this fact: among the physicians, hospital staff, vaccine researchers, and epidemiologists, HME providers helped save lives. Moreover, when the public health emergency winds down, HME must continue to play an indispensable, integral, and much broader role in the nation’s healthcare infrastructure.
David Kopf
Publisher & Executive Editor HME Business
Volume 28 Number 1 January/February 2021
hme-business.com EXECUTIVE EDITOR & PUBLISHER
EDITORIAL STAFF ART STAFF
David Kopf
(949) 265-1561
Laurie Layman
Teresa Antonio
Marlin Mowatt
Rick Neigher
818-597-9029
Randy Easton
678-591-2822
ART DIRECTOR
PRODUCTION STAFF
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
ONLINE STAFF
DIR. OF ONLINE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
SALES STAFF
GROUP SALES MANAGER INTEGRATED MEDIA CONSULTANT
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
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
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
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: To e-mail any member of the staff please use the follow- ing form: FirstinitialLastname@1105media.com.
Dallas Office: (weekdays, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. CT) Telephone: 972-687-6700; Fax: 972-687-6799 14901 Quorum Drive, Suite 425, Dallas, TX 75254
Corporate Office: (weekdays, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. PT) Telephone: 818-814-5200; Fax: 818-734-1522
6300 Canoga Avenue, Suite 1150, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
6 HMEBusiness | January/February 2021 | hme-business.com
Management Solutions | Technology | Products