Home Medical Equipment Advocacy Gets a Boost From Industry Leaders

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 17, 2021)—Eleven leading companies have signaled their commitment to supporting advocacy efforts that benefit the entire home medical equipment community as members of the American Association for Homecare’s (AAHomecare) new Diamond corporate partner class. They are:

• AdaptHealth
• Lincare
• Philips
• Apria
• McKesson
• ResMed
• Byram Healthcare
• Medline
• Rotech
• Cardinal Health
• Medtrade 

The new Diamond tier represents a 25% increase in dues support for AAHomecare’s public policy initiatives over the previous top sponsorship level (Platinum). 

“The 11 companies in the inaugural Diamond partner class are making an unprecedented investment in advocacy efforts to secure sustainable reimbursements and sensible regulatory policies,” said Tom Ryan, AAHomecare president and CEO. “Their additional financial support, coupled with the expertise and involvement in our policy work that these companies contribute on a continual basis, will underpin our advocacy efforts to address the biggest challenges we face.”

“These companies are rising to meet the moment at a critical time,” added Ryan. “Their actions should inspire everyone in the HME community to redouble their commitment to being part of industry advocacy.”

“Better public policy for HME helps every segment of our industry and ultimately leads to improved outcomes for the patients we serve,” explained AAHomecare Chair Bill Guidetti, president, East Division for Apria Healthcare. “AAHomecare has a proven track record of guiding our industry to address policy shortcomings, but there’s still a lot of opportunity for additional success. It’s important we have industry-wide participation in advocacy efforts that are currently underway and others that are on the horizon.” 

“This industry has made significant policy gains over the last few years because we’ve been consistent and persistent in our advocacy work in Washington and in the states—and AAHomecare has played a leading role in making that happen,” said AdaptHealth CEO Steve Griggs. “The AAHomecare leadership team brings not only years of experience but also considerable subject matter expertise on multiple fronts. Even as a large company, access to them has been extremely valuable to our organization. I encourage all suppliers and other HME stakeholders to ‘reinforce success’ by increasing their companies’ involvement in shaping public policy and by upping their support for AAHomecare.”

“After the past 18 months and dealing with the impact that the pandemic had on the DME industry acting as a second line of defense, we believe strongly that it is more important than ever that we stand united to achieve the best possible care for our patients,” Lincare CEO Crispin Teufel said. “We appreciate the partnership with AAHomecare over the past years to accomplish this goal and look forward to further increasing our support for the industry.”

In addition, long-standing AAHomecare corporate partner Pride Mobility has moved up to the Platinum level from their previous Gold level and First Quality Products has increased their support to the Gold tier. BioDerm, CCS Medical and Medical Service Company are recent additions to the corporate partner ranks at the Bronze level.

The full list of partners can be found at aahomecare.org/corporate-partners. For information on becoming a part of AAHomecare’s corporate partner program, contact Mike Nicol at [email protected].