CCS Medical CTO Richard Mackey on AI, Data, and the Future of DME in Chronic Care Management

CCS Medical CTO Richard Mackey on AI, Data, and the Future of DME in Chronic Care Management

On the Claim to Fame DME podcast, hosts Alex and Wayne interview Richard Mackey, CTO of CCS Medical, a 30+ year company evolving from traditional DME into chronic care management, especially for diabetes. Mackie describes how AI and analytics can digitize patient interactions, connect fragmented systems, and deliver more personalized, multi-channel experiences across portals, texts, emails, and live conversations. He explains CCS’s expansion beyond shipping supplies to providing coaching and predictive analytics, including identifying CGM users at risk of discontinuation (noting up to 40% struggle to stay on therapy). Mackie discusses changing patient expectations, emphasizing increased comfort with digital tools among older adults, and outlines AI’s real value in conversational documentation and workflow efficiency while keeping humans in the loop and clinicians central. He highlights adoption success factors such as integrated workflows, organizational change management, and regulatory compliance.

Bellevue Healthcare CEO Joel Gallion on Advocacy, Organic Growth, and AI in DME

This week Alex and Wayne are joined by Joel Gallion, President and CEO of Bellevue Healthcare, discusses the company’s evolution and the broader DME landscape. Founded in 2000, Bellevue now has 23 locations across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and Gallion shares how early “wear many hats” bootstrapping (starting with hospice) shaped a people-first culture and long-tenure leadership. He recaps advocacy work at NCART and AAHomecare legislative events, emphasizing the need to educate policymakers on home care’s value in keeping patients out of acute settings. Gallion explains Bellevue’s organic growth approach, adding services like complex rehab through internal talent, and the advantages of independence, including the ability to decline unsustainable business. He highlights shifting consumer expectations, technology’s role in visibility, and practical AI use such as automating fax intake, with future disruption expected in revenue cycle processes.

Daybreak’s Eric Mongeau on the Shift Beyond CPAP: Reducing Abrasion, Scaling DME, and At-Home Oral Appliance Therapy

On this week's episode of the Claim to Fame podcast, Eric Mongeau shares his 16-year sleep industry path from ResMed to scaling Aeroflow and now leading commercial strategy at Daybreak, arguing the industry is entering a major shift with more diagnostic and therapy options. He credits Aeroflow’s growth to reducing “abrasion,” embracing technology and automation, and building a consumer-like patient experience that compressed intake, pricing, paperwork, AI mask fitting, and telehealth scheduling into seconds, while emphasizing people, learning and development, and aligning the “three Ps” (patient, provider, payer). Mongeau discusses healthcare fragmentation, policy misalignment, and the need for payer/provider collaboration, then explains Daybreak’s at-home oral appliance model using telehealth, impressions, teledentistry screening, U.S. manufacturing, and gradual titration, plus how DMEs can convert CPAP drop-offs into oral appliance therapy; he also describes awareness efforts like state Sleep Apnea Awareness Month resolutions.

Med-South’s Lisa Wells on DME Compliance, Provider Enrollment, Culture, and the Future of Home-Based Care

On the Claim to Fame podcast, Alex and Wayne interview Lisa Wells, Senior Vice President at MedSouth Inc., a multi-state home medical equipment provider based in Alabama and licensed in over 40 states, with physical presence in Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina and recent acquisition-driven growth. Wells describes her 24-year path from knowing nothing about DME to leading organization-wide compliance and operations, emphasizing the industry’s constant regulatory change, payer guideline shifts, competitive bidding impacts, and operational challenges like integrating different software and training staff. She highlights common compliance pitfalls around CMS provider enrollment maintenance amid a moratorium and increased scrutiny on fraud, waste, and abuse, urging suppliers to engage with AAHomecare, VGM, and state associations like ADMEA to advocate effectively. Wells stresses culture, trust-based leadership, and servant leadership, and predicts growth in home-based care, rising Medicare beneficiaries, greater disease management focus, and major technology-driven change and efficiency gains.

ACHC on CMS Final Rule: Annual DMEPOS Accreditation, Survey Readiness, and Ownership Changes

This week on the Claim to Fame podcast, Alex and Wayne interview ACHC's Kris Rivotti (clinical compliance educator for DMEPOS) and Deborah Panza (associate program director for DMEPOS, and sleep) about ACHC’s education-focused accreditation approach and recent CMS Final Rule changes. They explain that many suppliers will now be surveyed and reaccredited annually (with prior cycles honored if accredited before January 1), discuss survey readiness through updated policies, routine adherence to standards, mock surveys, and use of accreditor tools, and clarify location and corporate office survey requirements, including sampling rules for large chains (25–100 locations/year). They outline patient record review requirements (minimum five real patient files) and note surveys may be delayed if records aren’t available. They also cover change-of-ownership rules requiring new surveys/accreditation, possible new PTANs within 36 months, removal of temporary accreditation for new branches, common survey failures, and CMS’s fraud, waste, and abuse oversight intent.