Each year, Beloit College puts together a “mindset
list” for its freshman class. For the students entering
college this fall — the Class of 2011 — the list points
out that Huey Newton, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy and Abbie Hoffman
have always been dead.
These freshmen have never lived with the Berlin Wall or without
Hummers, and they have never “rolled down” a window.
They pay for water in bottles. They get their news from television,
yet they never saw the Johnny Carson show live. Tiananmen Square is
a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre, and U2 has
always been more than a spy plane.
They're always texting 1 n other, and, according to the list,
virtual reality has always been available when the real thing
failed.
If you are an HME owner, this “mindset” probably
reflects a world incredibly different than the one in which you
began your company. It also reveals an incredible array of
opportunities. The thing is, they may not be those on which you
have always based your business.
Think about it. The business owner who enters HME this year may
never have known this industry without national competitive bidding
or an oxygen cap. His claims could all be electronic, and Medicare
might not be one of his payers. He could be counting the money in
his cash register instead of waiting on reimbursements. He might
invest in home transfill systems and POCs instead of delivering
oxygen tanks.
Try as we might to keep things the way they have always been,
the world just keeps changing. People change. Needs and attitudes
change. Governments change.
For years, there has been a store near HomeCare's offices
called Cakes 'n Things. Although cake is my favorite dessert, I
never went in the store. Apparently neither did many other people,
because when I drove by last week, the sign had changed to Wings 'n
Things. Kind of a drastic switch, but the store owners must have
felt it necessary since Cakes 'n Things had lost whatever appeal it
once held.
It must be daunting for longtime company owners who, after years
of doing business the same way, are forced to change in response to
market conditions or, in this industry's case, to ill-conceived
legislation and regulation. For HME providers faced with this
situation, changing products or payers won't be easy decisions to
make or to implement.
I don't mean to imply that traditional methods will no longer
work; the circumstances will be different for each HME. I do know
that the changes taking place in this industry are monumental. No
matter where you are located, inside or outside of a competitive
bidding area, you will not escape. If you choose not to become
accredited, for example, you will have to figure out how to get
along without Medicare business. And if you go into retail, you are
looking at a business model that is completely different.
HME's new business owners, however, aren't carrying your
baggage. They have not fought your legislative and regulatory
battles. They are looking at the industry's opportunities as they
now exist, not as they were yesterday. They will operate their
companies based on what is possible under the government's new
mandates, and they will be focused on the baby boomers, those
soon-to-be beneficiaries who may expect to pay out-of-pocket for
medical equipment if it will make their lives easier.
I'm guessing the jury on Wings 'n Things will be out for awhile.
But I suspect that after the dust has settled should competitive
bidding be fully implemented, this year's new HME providers —
the industry's own Class of 2011 — will be among the
survivors when that year rolls around. I hope you will be, too.
