Page 43 - HME Business, March/April 2021

“We’re going to look at some of his diet information, some tan- gible information around weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, sleep data, the list goes on and then fire off alerts and warnings to the clinical environment as needed.”
That’s not an easy strategy to execute, but I think that is what the future of healthcare can and should look like, and that we need to figure out as HME, as an industry, how do we play into that environment and support that environment? What are the constituencies we’re going to be partnering with in terms of technology, companies, clinicians, etc., to build that future for the U.S. healthcare system?
HMEB: Taking all these points — the changes in how care is being provisioned, the fact that we’re seeing more pa- tients return to post-acute care, the fact that we’re turning a corner with the disease — what advice do you have for your fellow sleep providers as they look at the next six to eight months? What’s your advice for all HME providers? Sheehan: I would say keep doing what you’re doing. The re- sponse from the HME community to the U.S. healthcare system over the past 12 months, I think has been heroic. We’ve had number of national companies report on the number of COVID lives that they touched directly, and it’s very impressive. So you are sending technicians, clinicians and therapists into COVID- positive environments to relieve a healthcare system that was extraordinarily strained in its response to this pandemic.
I think that the HME community responded amazingly. I
think that we need to continue to stand up and tell that story, because I don’t think it’s well reflected in how we’re reimbursed today, and we need to continue to execute on that high level of service and partnership to the U.S. healthcare system at large. Be that patients, be that referral partners, be that payers, be that government agencies, et cetera, keep getting out there.
I sit as a vice chair of AAHomecare, and as I put that hat on,
I would say that we really need to celebrate the response the HME community brought to this pandemic. We need to under- stand how that fits in the design of the healthcare system of the future, and make sure that we are appropriately considered and frankly reimbursed in that future, because that becomes a key to ensuring that we don’t see the continued waves of bankrupt- cies and foreclosures that we’ve seen across the sector in the last 10 years when Medicare frankly treated us as equipment jockeys — and that’s not what we are.
We’re clinically driven organizations that provide connected healthcare in the home and unlock a tremendous amount of value for the U.S. healthcare system. I think we are a key instrument and tool that the U.S. healthcare system needs to use for this future of value-based, cloud-connected healthcare in the home.
That is who we are, that is what we do, and I think we need to stand up and be proud of that fact. I think we as an industry need to pat ourselves on the back for the work that we did throughout this pandemic in the harm’s way that many of our people put themselves in to help the United States deal with what was a questionable response to a global pandemic.
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