What I Wish I Knew: Hard-Won Lessons from a 30-Year Career in HME Consulting

Ideal Audience:

Professionals in durable medical equipment (DME) companies, including owners, revenue cycle managers, financial officers, and senior leaders.

Course Description:

This presentation will explore essential strategies and metrics for managing both the financial health and revenue cycle performance of durable medical equipment (DME) companies. Attendees will gain insights into how accounts receivable (AR) strategies directly influence financial outcomes and learn actionable methods to optimize this critical relationship. The session will highlight key metrics for monitoring financial and RCM performance, emphasizing their role in driving organizational success. By bridging the gap between financial management and AR operations, participants will understand why effective leadership in the DME industry requires a comprehensive grasp of both.

Learning Objectives

1.Evaluate AR Strategies and Financial Impact: 
Attendees will learn to assess how various accounts receivable strategies impact financial health and apply best practices to strengthen this relationship within their DME operations.

2. Analyze Financial and RCM Metrics:
Participants will be able to identify and interpret key financial and revenue cycle metrics, such as denial rate, days sales outstanding (DSO), and operating expense ratio, to evaluate organizational performance effectively.

3. Integrate Financial and RCM Leadership Skills.

Learners will develop a comprehensive understanding of financial management and revenue cycle operations, equipping them to lead more effectively by aligning these two critical functions for organizational success.

The HME industry faces unprecedented staffing challenges that threaten access to care. According to Advisory Board, “More than 6.5 million healthcare professionals will permanently leave their positions by 2026, while only 1.9 million will step in to replace them.” As more and more baby boomers and employees retire and turnover rates grow higher, solutions to the shortages have to be addressed. In this session, we will explore solutions to the staffing constraints as well as how to use and leverage automation and technology for purposes of sustaining staff and growing profits. Key topics include creating positive workplace cultures to reduce turnover, technology for by rote functions, and outsourcing for potential workarounds. Practical and interactive, Join Miriam for a discussion on concrete solutions to today's most pressing staffing challenges.

The DME landscape is evolving.  It's growing, but the business is moving.  Development and execution of a business strategy is more imperative than ever before.  In this session we'll discuss the dynamics that are shaping the future of DME and how those forces likely leave the DME industry looking five or ten years from now.  With steep growth rates in some product categories and potential declines in others, a shifting payer landscape, site-of-care shifts fueled by payer and provider relationships, competitive bidding, increase M&A activity, among other things, success in our industry is different tomorrow than it is today.

We'll also focus heavily on the actionable steps proactive DMEs are taking to prepare their business for an evolved landscape with focus on today and ten years from now.