Navigating the New Normal for HME

Get guidance from HME industry experts on moving forward from the COVID-19 crisis.

Prochant’s Joey Graham and fellow industry veteran, Ty Bello, recently revisited their white paper, “2021 & Beyond: From Surviving to Thriving,” through the lens of the current pandemic. They sat down for a two-part podcast called “Navigating the New Normal for HME and Infusion Therapy.”

Here are some key takeaways that will help you, too, to navigate this “new normal.”

Navigating the New Normal

1. Be smart with expenses

There are several ways to help your HME business throughout 2020.

  • Delay your payroll taxes: HME providers have the ability to delay payment of the FICA portion of payroll taxes until the end of the year.
  • Reduce your expenses: Closely examine all expenses and determine if they are essential. Some Some strategies include:
    • Interest-only payments (no principal), especially for real estate, vehicles, and other large loans your company is currently servicing.
    • Many landlords are offering rent/lease deferral.
    • Eliminate non-essential expenses. Look at your large monthly license fees for services such as Office 365, Zoom, and others to ensure you’re not paying for unneeded licenses. Examine recurring expenses that auto-charge your credit card. Sometimes, they fly under the radar.

2. Take advantage of online industry events.

Our industry has truly banded together to bring quality, educational content online.

Ty and Joey suggest that providers take advantage of this time as individuals, leaders, and owners to fill up on as much education as possible. State and national associations are offering countless webinars, as are the medical journals, for the industry. If there were ever a time for the HME industry to “go back to school,” it is now.

3. Serve your HME billing teams.

How can providers truly support their teams?

Whether you laid off, furloughed, or kept your staff on during this time, everyone on your team has suffered. Now that we are on the other side of this, you can significantly and positively impact your employees.

  • Welcome your team every morning and thank them at the end of the day for what they have given you, the team, and the people you all serve.
  • Have a one-on-one meeting with each team member and help them assess their financial and family situation. This is fully confidential, of course.
  • Offer financial advice through a trusted financial advisor or to pay for an online budgeting course.

4. Work well from home.

You will need to implement a “formal” work-from-home program at your organization. Typically, this involves IT and HR coordinating on guidance for work-from-home employees. These are generally summarized in an agreement between providers and their teams.

You will need to provide your team members with a PC or laptop and at least two screens. You may also offer a monthly allowance for internet and/or other work-from-home costs. To ensure that HIPAA regulations are met, your IT team will implement guidelines for each employee to follow.

Tune in next week for more takeaways about navigating the new normal for HME. Email us now to receive the first part of Joey and Ty’s podcast in full.


Prochant is the nation’s leading HME billing and process outsourcing company. Our highly-skilled team helps providers become more profitable by outsourcing or enhancing front- and back-office processes. We rapidly implement changes and proactively monitor metrics to ensure client success. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, we work with top medical equipment providers and health systems.