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YARMOUTH, Maine – June marks the midpoint of the calendar year and so far, it’s been a financial disappointment say 65% of respondents to a recent HME Newspoll.
“2024 has been a challenging year,” wrote one poll respondent. “Despite our growth in volume and workforce, we have encountered significant obstacles. We have faced difficulties in contracting, with closed insurance panels, struggled with low reimbursement rates, and dealt with high equipment costs.”
Reimbursement presented a challenge for many respondents (25%), while staffing, which has been a struggle for several years across the industry, also remains problematic, say 44% of poll respondents. That’s got them seeking alternatives – and seeing opportunities in technology adoption (38%).
“We’re adopting an AI solution to help with staffing shortage,” wrote one. “Looking forward to it, but the development and training is taking a while.”
While payer contracting represented the biggest challenge to only a small minority of poll respondents (3%), the impact of managed care plans – with their closed provider networks and low reimbursement – casts a wide net.
“We have seen more people signing on to managed care programs and that is making it difficult for all providers, including doctor’s offices,” wrote one respondent. “Reimbursement has been challenging and costs have been going up.”
One wild card that providers could not have predicted when 2024 kicked off: the Change Healthcare cyberattack in February, which continues to cast a shadow, say several respondents.
“The Change Healthcare hack continues to cause problems,” wrote one respondent. “While we still got most of the money in, we were not getting ERAs, so we could not post to the account. That meant we could not bill the patient for their balance…and that has caused a severe reduction in overall revenue.”