Monday, September 15th, 2008
8:00am - 9:00am
Measuring Up: Soundings from the 2nd Annual HME News / SRA Financial Survey
Rick Glass, President, Steven Richards and Associates
With more than 550 respondents to last year's industrywide survey, and a similar number this year, the 2nd Annual HME News/SRA Financial Survey is the most credible business survey in the HME industry. This year, SRA's Rick Glass will reveal and interpret findings from this landmark survey. As someone who has brokered the sale of more than 100 HME companies, Glass is eminently positioned to provide an authorative perspective on emerging trends, for better business and worse. As Glass puts it: "Financial benchmarking is one of the best tools available for an owner to gauge overall business performance, measure success/decline and provide banking and accounting advisers with reliable data that is more pertinent than just reading the stock summaries on the public companies."
9:15am - 10:15am
Patient-Centric Healthcare: A Shifting Paradigm and How it Impacts the HME Industry
Mike Mallaro, CFO, VGM Group
This session will explore the emerging transition from a physician-centric healthcare model to a patient-centric model and its impact on the HME industry. Factors driving this shift include (a) the availability of information enabled by the Internet, (b) expectations of Baby Boomers, and (c) consumerism fueled by medical inflation. This paradigm shift has profound effects on how HMEs will source new business in the future.
10:30am - 11:30am
Workshop Session: Street Talk
Dexter Braff, President, The Braff Group
Mike Moran, Executive Editor, HME News
Rick Rector, Publisher, HME News
Led by Dexter Braff, President of The Braff Group, there is no more prescient, no more invigorating, no wider forum for sharing business information with your peers. In this, the ultimate in industry networking, suppliers will split into breakout groups to share the highs and lows of the year that was, and their plans for the year to come. If you've never attended a Street Talk session before, you don't know what you've been missing. And guess what? It's a lot.
11:45am - 1:00pm
Competitive Bidding: The After-Action Report
Don Clayback, Senior Vice President of Networks, The MED Group
Competitive bidding’s been delayed for 18 to 24 months, but most likely we’ve not seen the last of this reimbursement scheme. It makes sense then to glean what we can from providers who participated in Round 1. In this session, we’ll reveal the findings from a survey that polled Round 1 HME providers on, among other things, what categories they bid in, did they bid as part of a network and what external resources did they use to craft their bids. We’ll also consult with a panel of providers on what they learned about their companies and themselves as they went through the bid process.
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Your Oxygen Customer Rental Base is Growing, Isn't It?
Les DeFelice, CEO, DeFeliceCare
Joe Lewarski, Vice President of Respiratory Products, Invacare
Rare is the home oxygen supplier who hasn't wondered whether there's some sort of governor on his oxygen business. No matter what he does, he can't seem to push beyond the same number of set-ups per month. That was the case at DeFeliceCare until company CEO, Les DeFelice made some changes. In this session Les will provide a first-person case study of what it takes to break through the ceiling. Accompanied by clinician and one-time home oxygen business builder, Joe Lewarski, Les will explore the ways and means of a supplier's rental base with an eye toward growing the business. In this session, they'll analyze new oxygen rental growth and historic existing rental growth. They'll examine the number of set-ups required to net one new customer, and how these factors will influence a total oxygen census.
3:15pm - 4:15pm
Workshop Session: Street Talk
Part 2
4:30pm - 5:30pm
People Make the Business Go Round: An HME HR Study
Joe Sansone, CEO, TMC Orthopedic
Do you wish you knew what your competitors were paying their respiratory technicians or what their average net revenue per respiratory technician is? How many sales calls per day is the industry average and what is the average commission paid to sales representatives? Is your payroll higher or lower than the industry average? Starting this year, HME News will survey HME companies about basic financial data and human resource benchmarks. Joe Sansone, a noted industry consultant, will reveal the findings and help you interpret the results.
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
8:00am - 9:00am
Get a Grip: Staff and Technology and Your AR
Andrea Stark, Founder, MiraVista LLC
When HME News solicited feedback from prior years' attendees, asking what they wanted to see in this year's program, more suppliers keyed on the need for an AR Session from a distinguished professional than any other topic. Enter Andrea Stark, a one-time ombudsman in DMERC Professional Relations at Region C's Palmetto GBA. Since 2003, Andrea has been helping struggling suppliers with their aging accounts receivables and with strategies for reducing overall AR. In this session, she will orient attendees on techniques that ensure staff accountability. She'll also discuss available technologies that streamline claims processing and account management. The session will also address common questions about appropriate staffing with regards to personality and number of staff to effectively address the accounts.
9:15am – 10:15am
Little Things Matter: Why Now’s the Time to Balance Your Scorecard
Richard Wetherell. Vice President, Q4MedSource
The old maxim about watching out for the pennies so the dollars will take care of themselves has never mattered more to HME suppliers. That's why the concept of the 'Balanced Scorecard' is one that every HME supplier should know something about. In this session, Richard Wetherell, an expert in strategic planning and an ACHC board member, will introduce this vital business concept. Can you improve your organization's understanding of the strategy and direction of your business? Would you like to improve profits and reduce costs and keep your customers happy, too? Would you like to improve employee morale and retention and involve your employees in achieving your financial and customer objectives? Balancing your scorecard is one way to make sure you are improving the right processes in order to make your cost cutting goals. It doesn't make sense to cut willy-nilly, but with vision and balance.
10:30am – 11:30am
Lay of the Land
Cara Bachenheimer, Senior Vice President of Government Relations, Invacare
John Gallagher, Vice President of Government Relations, The VGM Group
Seth Johnson, Vice President of Government Affairs, Pride Mobility Products
Wayne Stanfield, President & CEO, NAIMES
Moderated by: Mike Moran, Executive Editor, HME News
Congress has delayed competitive bidding, but only for 18 to 24 months. From an esteemed panel of experts who helped engineer the delay, we'll learn what the industry's next moves should be. Can the industry make bidding go away forever? What might a new bidding program look like? We'll discuss these questions and others and how they relate to the changing political landscape in Washington.
11:45am – 1:00pm
Street Talk Wrap-Up
Dexter Braff, President, The Braff Group
Call it the Great Synthesis. In this wrap-up session, Dexter Braff talks the talk after suppliers have walked the walk in the breakout sessions. This is where we pull it altogether, where we turn up the wattage on the light bulbs lit in the individual break-outs. Make sure to have a notebook in hand. If you missed this one in 2006 or 2007, you missed some ideas not worth missing.
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