Page 16 - HME Business, January/February 2022

Business Solutions
Not everyone is a fan of remote monitoring for oxygen services beyond technical diagnostics. Remotely monitoring patient usage and performance data for oxygen therapy might eventually get that data tied to reimbursement in the same way sleep therapy has remote patient monitoring tied to reimbursement. That scenario for home oxygen care doesn’t come as a thrill to some folks.
“I can see people taking that view, and I respect that, because we got to pay the bills, protect fee schedules, and protect our business,” Toomajian says. “However, I see the alternative is that healthcare costs are going to continue to rise, and the health plans and CMS are going to try to need to find ways to offset those costs.”
And the way payers typically offset costs is through higher premiums and cutting reimbursement rates.
“So, in my mind it would be short-minded to not get out in front of this,” he argues. “I would like to have us as an HME community figure out how to drive value, and then work on how we get paid for lowering total cost of care.”
Obviously, a lot needs to happen to evolve care and funding models to get to that point; as it stands CMS is completely unaware of how much but how HME providers leveraged technology to rapidly respond to the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated what’s possible.
“We had, as an industry, the opportunity to serve as an exten- sion of the ER; to stabilize these patients at home in an urgent way,” Toomajian explains. “That was a near-term need that the industry stepped up and filled so that the hospitals could focus on their sickest patients. ... When this is over, chronic disease is still going to be around.”
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FREE WEBINAR: POISED FOR MORE GROWTH
Why HME providers should invest in respiratory.
The role of home respiratory services play in U.S. health-
care has expanded over the past two years, and respiratory providers have sat at the epicenter of this growth. As hospitals needed help confronting the Covid-19 public health emer- gency, respiratory providers were there to facilitate more primary oxygen care in the home — and that broader role isn’t going away.
On March 10 at 2 p.m. Eastern, HME Business will host a webinar sponsored by McKesson Medical Surgical that will discuss:
• The continued evolution of the respiratory category and the
critical role HME providers are playing during the pandemic. • What types of respiratory products and services HME providers are providing.
• Solutions to help drive business efficiencies.
• How technology can create a more patient-centric respiratory program to help drive improved outcomes.
Speakers are Brent Poythress, HME corporate accounts vice president at McKesson Medical Surgical and Patricia Reni, the respiratory clinical program manager for the McKesson Medical Surgical Extended Care Division.
Register for this free webinar at hme-business.com/webinars.
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