The Market Is Out There

Every seven seconds a baby boomer turns 50. Some 24 million have already reached that half-century milestone. By 2011, the first of the boomers will turn 65, and by 2030 the group will be ages 66 to 84 and make up 20 percent of the U.S. population.

It’s probably safe to say that not many of the 77 million baby boomers are particularly happy about aging, to which the popular embrace of rejuvenating plastic surgeries, memory-enhancing herbals and life-affirming drugs like Rogaine and Viagra attests. But the fact is the age thing happens to all of us, and some conditions simply come with the territory. For instance, age 57, which the eldest of the boomers hit in 2003, is the average year for onset of chronic conditions like arthritis and diabetes.

As a provider, your business depends on making such unhappy terms of aging, including disease and disability, more palatable by helping seniors to remain comfortable and independent. Of the older boomers, in fact, 75 percent own their homes, and they want to stay in them. According to one study of seriously ill seniors living at home, 29 percent said they would rather die (yes, that’s right, die) than enter a nursing home.

Granted, reimbursement cuts and other provisions of the Medicare Modernization Act may make it harder to care for such patients successfully based on traditional business models. So break out of the mold. The market for HME is out there, and it’s only going to grow.

Just take a look at HomeCare’s special section profiling 2003’s leading HME providers (page 26). Many of them, national operations and small companies alike, had banner years because they came up with better ways to serve their customers. But they are not resting on their financial laurels. On the contrary, they are adapting strategy, testing new programs and gearing up to deal with the huge patient base that HME must serve in the years to come.

Instead of being bummed about recent legislative losses — and we all know they probably won’t be the last based on this industry’s history with Congress — a more profitable direction may lie in figuring out how to handle the increased business that faces you. Pretty soon, America’s seniors — to be the single largest demographic group in the country — are going to require your products and services.

If you can meet the needs of these aging baby boomers — your patients — their lives will be better. And your bottom line will be bigger.