EXHIBITOR EDUCATION

TexMEP is offering two exhibitor-exclusive sessions this year and encourage our associate members/exhibitors to join us and learn more about the challenges providers face and how we can work together to strengthen the HME community in Texas.

The following two sessions are exclusive to our exhibitors, though exhibitors are welcome to join providers in any and all sessions!

Provider AMA - Ask Me Anything

Speakers:

Victoria Peterson, RespMed; Jim Mahon, Compass Health Brands; Mark Gowen, Angel Medical

Top 10 Provider Challenges & How We Can Solve Them 

Speakers:

Victoria Peterson, RespMed; Jim Mahon, Compass Health Brands; Laurie Bachorek, MetroCare

ATTENDEE EDUCATION

A Time to Lead

Speaker:

Ike Isaacon, SVP, Government & Regulatory Relations

VGM & Associates

Mastering Benchmarks Within Your Own Walls

Medicaid and Medicare managed care audit volumes are increasing. The process varies widely depending on your contract status and product categories. The biggest challenge is finding someone to assist in the process. Prepayment and post payment reviews can last much longer than they should and often times, providers are not offered the appeal rights they are entitled to. This presentation will discuss examples of managed care audits, challenges and pitfalls that providers face and how to manage them as smoothly as possible.

Speaker:

Kim Cuce', Director, Business Optimization

VGM & Associates

Complete Patient Care: Where Retail and Billable HME Come Together

Fitting Retail and Billable HME together, for the best patient/customer experience.

• What is the mindset of the HME consumer on their first encounter with HME
• • Patient vs. Caregiver
  • Knowledge gap being filled by the internet.
  • Making things simple
• The Insurance patient and the gaps in care.
• • Educate consumers on options while educating ourselves about the consumer.
  • Connecting them to retail.

Speaker:

Eddie Cates, National Sales Manager

Texas Medical Distributors

Managed Care Messes

Medicaid and Medicare managed care audit volumes are increasing. The process varies widely depending on your contract status and product categories. The biggest challenge is finding someone to assist in the process. Prepayment and post payment reviews can last much longer than they should and often times, providers are not offered the appeal rights they are entitled to. This presentation will discuss examples of managed care audits, challenges and pitfalls that providers face and how to manage them as smoothly as possible.

Speaker:

Kelly Grahovic, General Manager

The van Halem Group

Accountability Measures to Increase Productivity & Improve Culture

Businesses succeed at a higher level and staff members perform better when everyone takes ownership of their work. From payer coverage, qualification and eligibility issues to inventory mishaps and more, it is incumbent upon leadership to train and set expectations for their staff. A common leadership weakness is not holding people accountable until things go wrong. This laissez faire attitude creates negative morale and unengaged staff. According to Gallup, only two in ten employees believe that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work. In this session, Miriam will discuss accountability measures that breed success and improve culture. You won’t want to miss this interactive and timely session. 

Speaker:

Miriam Lieber

Lieber Consulting

HME Paradigm Shift: Change to Survive!

Steve shares his passion for this topic with solutions! HME companies have sold ourselves short knowing our worth and what we deserve. The days of balanced billing and not collecting upfront from the patient must end. Documentation requirements need to occur before the service is rendered. The consequences of a denial or nonpayment must be understood by everyone in the business. For every denied and nonpaid claim, the company must sell 10 more to make up for that one loss and this cannot be. The margins are too tight to allow this and this must stop or the patient or referral source should seek services elsewhere. The industry is growing at 400% per year and there are less providers - those providers who can maintain their margin and thus their services will be around long term. There is a plenty of business and those needing services. We must be sure to maximize profitability so you can continue to serve those customers and referral sources that really appreciate it.

Speaker:

Steve Cela, President

Strategic Office Support

Looking Ahead for DMEPOS Provider Requirements

CMS has recently revised its Quality Standards, imposing additional requirements for Accreditation Organizations to monitor. This session will inform providers about these mandated changes from CMS and emphasize the importance of enhanced data collection needed from providers.

Speaker:

Tim Safley, Program Director

Accreditation Commission for Health Care

Medicare Updates from your DME MAC

Michael Hanna, CGS DME POE, will review recent updates and changes to the Medicare program that affect DMEPOS suppliers.  He will also provide Prior Authorization trends, TPE audit results, and relevant CERT data .  There will be time to ask questions during this session.

Speaker:

Michael Hanna,  MPA, CDME, DME Provider Outreach

CGS

Removing the Smoke & Mirrors from "AI"

In this session, Trey Holterman, CEO and co-founder of healthcare automation platform Tennr (and graduate of Stanford’s AI Lab) will discuss what “AI” truly is, and what it is not. You’ll come away from this masterclass with an understanding of the best use cases for machine learning models and will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

In this talk, you’ll learn:

• A brief history of “AI”, real and phony
• The best use cases for machine learning
• How to spot BS and evaluate “AI” software solutions for healthcare businesses

Speaker:

Trey Holterman, CEO

Tennr

February Doesn't Have to be a Terrible Collection Month

Deductibles and insurance changes make February a dreadful collection month for many DME suppliers. It doesn’t have to be that way. DME suppliers can take advantage of the open enrollment period between October and early December to reduce lost or delayed collections in the new year related to patients changing their coverage to, from, and between Medicare and Medicare Advantage Plans. At the same time, suppliers can engage patient protocols to ease the reality of higher deductible volume.

In this session, Andrea helps attendees:

• Use available eligibility tools to proactively identify and address patient’s switching insurance in the new year.
• Navigate Medicare participation and claim assignment rules to optimize collections.
• Implement a deductible hold strategy to optimize insurance collections

Speaker:

Andrea Stark, Owner

MiraVista

How to Sleep Better at Night: A Good Cybersecurity Plan

In this session, the speaker will cover facets of the best practices related to an effective cybersecurity plan for any type of business.  As a Leader, knowing that you have covered the basics of security for your IT environment and your technology assets should be a top priority in today’s extremely dominated digital world.  Attendees will learn about key policies, procedures and tools necessary to understand levels of cyber risk and to mitigate those risks.

Speaker:

Jeffrey Woodham, VP of Operations

Mandry Technology

THANK YOU TO OUR CONFERENCE SPONSORS

DIAMOND SPONSORS

RUBY SPONSORS