On the Editor's Desk

YARMOUTH, Maine – It was big news when UnitedHealthcare announced it would reduce the number of product codes requiring prior authorizations. Cigna soon followed suit and then Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and others. While it was big news, it wasn’t surprising.  The American Medical Association (AMA) has been on a fierce campaign to reduce prior authorizations. On its website, the AMA characterizes it this way: “Prior authorization is a health plan cost-control process...

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know what semaglutides are these days. (Tell that to Microsoft Word, though – it didn’t tell me my initial spelling of semaglutides – semi vs. sema – was wrong.) Semaglutides, of course, are the new weight loss medications that go by brand names like Wegovy, Ozempic and Rybelsus. It’s hard to keep track of which celebrities have been on it, are on it or are denying being on it.   But I’d be lying if I weren’t...

We’ve burned through the first half of 2023 already and what do we have to show for it?  If the most read stories from January through June are any indication, it’s disruption, innovation and growth.  Let’s start with disruption. It has come in a number of forms in 2023, including one of the HME industry’s legacy manufacturers, Invacare, filing for bankruptcy. We posted a story about that to our website in February, and it remains the most read story of the...

Recently, I wrote about the news that Humana has contracted with AdaptHealth and Rotech Healthcare to provide HME products and services to its Medicare Advantage HME members.  Now, another giant health care company is making waves in the HME industry: Optum, which has been a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare since 2011 and which earlier this year bought LHC Group for a reported $5.4 billion.  LHC Group has 30,000 employees delivering home health, hospice, home- and community-based services,...

As we were putting the finishing touches on this June issue, news broke that Humana has contracted with AdaptHealth and Rotech Healthcare, two national HME providers, to provide HME products and services to its Medicare Advantage HMO members.  This is a big deal for a whole lotta reasons.  We’ve all read the headlines. Insurers are increasingly targeting Medicare Advantage plans as a source of growth. Last year, Humana outlined plans to expand its Medicare HMO offerings, specifically,...

Managing Editor Theresa Flaherty and I conduct quite a few interviews for the stories that appear in HME News. By all accounts, our May issue features quotes from more than 40 different people. I hope that’s not lost on you, dear readers, as this is one of the things that sets HME News apart. We’re on the phone with providers, manufacturers, vendors, consultants and other HME-affiliated professionals every day, discussing industry trends and developments, teasing out challenges...

As we were working on the April issue, Best Buy Health announced a new partnership with Atrium Health to provide remote patient monitoring, telehealth and patient management technology for the health system’s hospital-at-home program.  It turns out Atrium Health, which reportedly has the largest such program in the country, is just the tip of the iceberg.  Best Buy Health’s care-at-home solution, Current Health, also has partnerships with five of the 10 largest health...

2023 has a different feel to it already. A big change that’s immediately staring us in the face: Medtrade. That’s the Medtrade, as in the only Medtrade and newly in Dallas, not Atlanta or Las Vegas or more recently Phoenix, Medtrade. Per usual, we have special coverage on the show starting on page 21, including a story on the excitement exhibitors have and a Q&A with speakers Ronda Buhrmester and Collin Donaghue on one of the hottest markets in HME right now (CGMs, silly). Oh, and...

There’s been a lot of talk about the increased appreciation for home care due to the COVID-19  pandemic. And now we’re seeing lawmakers walk the talk. The omnibus bill they passed in December included not one but a handful of provisions that impact the HME industry: An extension of the 75/25 blended Medicare reimbursement rate in non-competitive bidding/non-rural areas through the end of the public health emergency or Dec. 31, 2023, whichever is later. A delay of the...

When I spoke with Geoffrey Purtill in September, he hinted that some dramatic changes were coming Invacare’s way, but he couldn’t say at that time what they were. The need for changes didn’t come as a surprise. Following a consent decree with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Invacare has continued to struggle to find its footing and then the pandemic hit, with all of its baggage. A company that once had a market cap of more than $1 billion now stands at $19.72 million. But...