Reality HME

Feel like you have been placed on a deserted island? In order to win the game, you must face the challenge of the Medicare reform law — reimbursement freezes and cuts, competitive bidding, mandatory accreditation AND your not-so-friendly competition. No, you are not on a TV show. This is Reality HME.

Once again, crisis is upon the home medical equipment industry. HME owners and managers everywhere are either gearing up for the new realities of the game, or hoping they get “purchased” off the island.

There are some basic issues that all HME companies can address in order to better face reality. Problems often develop over time because owners and managers get so busy running the day-to-day operations they tend to lose sight of what is going on around them.

The challenge is to evolve to the next business life cycle. Three keys to fitness and survival are giving proper attention to the company's mission, profit and focus. Solve these issues, and staying on the island can be easier.

Your Mission

Business owners and managers periodically need to reexamine the company mission — and that doesn't necessarily mean some fancy statement that is posted on the wall. It's a given that all HME mission statements should say, “We want to be the best and provide the best patient care.”

But what I mean by mission is, “Why are we here as a business? What is our true purpose?” A hospital-based HME company will probably (and should) answer this question differently than a publicly traded company. And a small independent company will have a different answer yet.

Each HME business should have a clear understanding of its primary purpose. Is it to serve a community need by providing products and services that otherwise would not be available? Or, is it to expedite hospital discharges and reduce length of stays? Or, is it to provide a good return for stockholders?

While none of these purposes is necessarily wrong, an honest understanding of mission will facilitate better management decisions. It will also help to establish a business culture that employees can buy into and in which they will be more productive. An unclear or confusing mission can turn a well-run company upside down simply by having the employees change the business into something they think it is supposed to be. The all-too-familiar example of this is the company whose customer service representatives spend hours being very fulfilled in their work renting crutches and seat lift chairs, all the while oxygen CMNs go unprocessed. Is a retail business model really the best fit?