Page 39 - HME Business, March/April 2021

Business Solutions
Like being stuck in a bad dream from which you is Gary Sheehan, MBA, the CEO of New England regional sleep
cannot wake, the entire world has been stuck in the COVID-19 reality. That’s certainly been the case for the HME industry.
One segment of HME services that has typi- fied the entire industry’s experience with handling the disease has been sleep therapy. Providers of sleep therapy equipment and services quickly tackled a tough learning curve to reshape how they safely and effectively provide products and services, and they have had to innovate new workflows and use
new tools to get there.
And now we are hitting the vaccine rollout. At press time, the
CDC’s latest data showed that more than 73 million Americans had been administered at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This represents roughly 22 percent of the total U.S. population and more than 28 percent of adults.
Public health experts and epidemiologists say the population needs roughly 70 percent to 85 percent vaccination coverage before the virus will be contained and people can return to the way things were. So based on current vaccination rates, we are on our way to those levels.
But the questions are, how long will it take before life will return to normal, and what will normal look like? Will it be a new normal, and what will that mean for the industry?
Here again, we can look to sleep therapy to give us some idea of how things might shape up. And one professional who does a considerable bit of thinking about sleep care and his business
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and respiratory provider Spiro Health (spirohealthservices.com). Sheehan sits on the editorial advisory board of HME Business magazine, is the vice chair of the board of directors for the American Association for Homecare (aahomecare.org), and he has provided various insights into COVID-19’s impact on sleep therapy and the HME industry as a whole through the pandemic.
Now that the industry is starting to see some light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, Sheehan again sits down with HME Business to get an idea of how HME providers can transition into a post-pandemic reality and what that might look like.
HMEB: So, how are you feeling right about now? Do you feel like sleep therapy is turning a corner?
Sheehan: I do. We saw things rebounding in the fall, and then that was somewhat muted by the spike in cases through the holiday season and into the new year. I think we’re now starting to see a rebounding of volume, and patients are seeking care and diagnoses for sleep-related conditions.
That’s an important first step for us to see a recovery in volume for patients than seeking therapy, which is where we come into the picture. So I’m pleased to see it, and hopefully, as we head into spring and vaccinations continue to accelerate in less at-risk populations, we will again continue to see some recovery, if not a large “bolus” of patients, perhaps above trend line. And as folks who went without diagnoses for extended periods are able to access diagnostic solutions they will flow into therapy with us.
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