Counting Sleep

According to most stakeholders involved in the treatment of sleep disorders, the burgeoning sector shows no signs of slowing. In fact, annual growth estimates of the market for products used to treat sleep-disordered breathing range from 15 to 25 percent. Even at the lower rate, that makes it a very attractive proposition for providers.

“Growth potential in the sleep apnea market is huge. We are less than 20 percent penetrated into a market of more than 20 million Americans with obstructive sleep apnea,” states Michael Farrell, vice president of marketing for ResMed, Poway, Calif. “When you include the millions of patients who suffer from complex sleep apnea and other types of central sleep apnea as well as other sleep-disordered breathing [diseases] such as nocturnal hypoventilation, flow limitation and snoring, the opportunities are vast, and the number of Americans suffering quickly approaches 40 million.”

But the business does not come without challenges.

“It's an alternative revenue source that fits well if you're a respiratory specialty company,” says Don White, CEO of Associated Healthcare Systems in Amherst, N.Y. “But it's not a panacea to your revenue problems, because like all businesses, it's complex, and it requires clinical oversight and training of your staff for billing and customer service skills.”

White, whose HME company has a database of 9,000 SDB patients, adds that providers must understand the disease process, the clinical aspects and the co-morbidities. “You also have to know how to market it, how to sell it and how to train your staff to ask the right questions,” he says.

Maura Weis, marketing manager of sleep therapy devices for Murrysville, Pa.-based Respironics, emphasizes the need for a complete evaluation of operational resources and the local market before initiating or expandng a specialty sleep program.

“If HME providers are looking for new opportunities and are considering sleep, they should say ‘Okay, let me make that vested interest and do it the right way,' which means understanding the market dynamics, looking at investing appropriate types of resources — which certainly include human assets — and then looking at the way they can best position themselves in the market to be successful,” she explains.