Webinar Recording: Vendor- Flexible DME: Why It Matters & How It Works

Hospices rely on durable medical equipment (DME) providers as an essential extension of their care teams, ensuring that patients receive the right equipment at the right time. In our recent webinar, Vendor Flexible DME: Why It Matters and How It Works, industry experts discussed how a vendor-flexible model improves patient care, supports vendors, and ensures fair pricing and reliable service.

A few key takeaways from the webinar:

✔ Vendor Flexibility Enhances Patient Care time stamp: 2:33
A vendor-flexible model ensures patients receive timely, high-quality equipment by leveraging multiple providers to meet different logistical and geographic needs.

✔ The Role of Vendor Choice in Cost Control and Service Quality time stamp: 8:16
Allowing multiple DME vendors promotes competition, ensures service reliability, and helps hospices manage costs while maintaining high patient satisfaction.

✔ How Qualis Supports DME Vendors and Hospices time stamp: 10:37
Qualis builds a nationwide vendor network, provides fair rates, ensures prompt payments, and simplifies order management through its DME+ portal.

✔ The Growing Need for Vendor Flexibility in Hospice Care time stamp: 13:50
With rising costs and staffing shortages, vendor flexibility is now essential for hospices to provide uninterrupted, high-quality care without logistical burdens.

If your hospice is looking to improve DME management or if you're a vendor interested in joining the Qualis network, we’d love to connect. Contact us today for a consultation!

WEBINAR TRANSCRIPT

Alright. Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, vendor flexible DME, why it matters and how it works. I'm Chelsey Heil, head of marketing at Qualis, and I'm excited to be joined by two experts in the hospice DME space.
 
So we have Steve, VP of development and contracting at Qualis. Welcome, Steve.
 
Thank you. Chelsey.
 
Steve has been instrumental in building partnerships that ensure hospices get the best service from their DME vendors. And then we also have Gary Strain with us today from, Global Medical Products, VP of sales, the hospice division.
 
Gary has firsthand experience working with hospice providers and understands those real world challenges of delivering high quality DME services. So welcome, Gary.
 
Thanks, Chelsey.
 
So here's what we're going to be covering today. We wanna talk about how vendors act as an extension of the hospice team, why vendor flexibility improves patient care, and how Qualis supports vendors with fair rates, fast payments, and new business opportunities.
 
Before we jump in, I want to just, like, throw up a quick poll question for y'all. So I'm gonna pop that on the screen.
 
So how does your hospice currently manage DME vendors?
 
We'll give those answers a second to trickle in, and then we'll get started.
 
Alright. So it's looking like some single vendors, some multiple vendor contracts.
 
I'm gonna go ahead and end this, and let's jump right in. So, Steve, can you start by explaining why vendor flexibility is so important in hospice care?
 
Sure.
 
So, you know, when a hospice selects a DME provider, they're not just provide choosing a vendor. They're really choosing a partner who directly impacts patient care.
 
Families, really don't see a difference between the hospice and the DME provider.
 
They expect the same level of compassion and service from both, from both.
 
But here's the challenge. You know, many times, no single vendor can can meet every need all the time.
 
That's why vendor flexibility is key.
 
If one provider is out of a certain piece of equipment or struggling with, delivery delays, another vendor can step in. This prevents disruptions and ensure that the patients get what they need when they need it.
 
Yeah. So I agree with Steve. I mean, from the vendor side, flexibility allows us to work within our strengths. Some vendors are great at rapid delivery in urban areas where maybe we're just not in that particular market, while others are better equipped for the rural hospice patients.
 
Having multiple vendors means the hospice isn't stuck to a one size fits all matter model.
 
It helps vendors because they can take on business they can't realistically support, rather than being stretched too thin. At the end of the day, it isn't just all about logistics.
 
It's about patient care and dignity. So it's always about, making sure that the family is comfortable and the patient is getting what they need in the time frame that they need it.
 
You know, you touched on something there, Gary, about, you know, the delivery of different areas, urban versus rural.
 
You know, and and there's also a a big difference. You know, the one thing that I realized, is that not all hospices are created equal. Meaning, you know, there's there's hospital based, you know, hospices that, you know, typically have a shorter length of stay, which impacts the vendor significantly. So, you know, there are challenges with, geography, with, you know, with just the different ways that, you know, hospices operate that can create challenges, you know, or make things a lot easier for a vendor. So I think that's one, important thing to know.
 
Yeah. And one of our experiences with Qualis is that, you will take and carve out certain areas for us. So if we say, you know, we can service this county and this county, but not this county, and the hospice serves multiple areas. You'll carve that out and, allow us to be strong in the area that we're in and then another vendor to come in and be strong in the area that they're in, exactly to your point of rural versus more urban areas in some cases.
 
Right.
 
And I and I think that that goes back to the whole topic of what we're discussing here today is is vendor flexibility.
 
You know, there's a lot of times where, you know, like I said previously, just one vendor can't can't handle at all, whether it's county based or or or just, census based, volume based. So, so having, you know, multiple vendors available to a hospice is, is I think crucial.
 
Agreed. And, you know, when you're dealing with a hospice patient, they really do see the DME as an extension of the hospice itself.
 
So, you know, we're global medical products, but when we come to the door, we're the hospice company that we're servicing, and that's what the family sees. And that's what's important to us to, to make sure that we're providing the same level of care and compassion to the patient that the hospice gives that patient.
 
Yeah. And that's something, you know, we focus at Qualis, on too. You know, we share feedback, between hospices and vendors so that, you know, everyone can improve.
 
If we hear from a hospice that a certain vendor is excelling in in service, we pass it along so that they they can learn from it. If there are issues, we work with vendors to address them before they become bigger problems.
 
I think that's all important and just like with any relationship, whether it's, you know, a relationship with a vendor or a relationship with a friend or a spouse, communication is the key in order in order to make that, you know, that relationship as seamless as possible. And so that if there are any issues, they get, they get, you know, solved right away. You know, the ones that we go ahead.
 
It is well, it is appreciated that we get the feedback as well because, you know, that gives us an opportunity to look at our internal processes and to, share those, you know, you know, joys or failures with the the technicians that made the delivery as well so we can better ourselves as an organization.
 
You know, the one graphic I see here on the slide is it talks about cap scores.
 
And you a lot of times, I don't think hospices necessarily think about cap scores and how, you know, how the vendor is is involved with that. But, you know, we did a study and we kind of we kind of looked deeper into all the questions on the on the cap score, you know, that that they asked for the cap, scores. And of the forty seven questions on that survey, nineteen have are somewhat directly related and impacted by DME. So, that's around forty percent. That's a pretty big number just, coming from the DME and and what the DME vendor interaction with that family, is like. So, pretty significant there.
 
Agreed.
 
Let's take a moment and talk about the Qualis approach to vendor partnerships.
 
One of the biggest differentiators for Qualis is that we don't, rent, own or sell any DME.
 
It's important distinction because it means that our sole focus is supporting vendors and ensuring hospices have access to the best possible, equipment vendors. Rather than competing with vendors, we work alongside them to create a nationwide, network of DME providers. This ensures that hospices will always have access to multiple vendors rather than being locked into one single provider.
 
And I will say that working with Qualis is is a positive for, Global as well. From the vendor side, we get very frustrated when one vendor is locked into, a book of business and maybe are not servicing the patients to the best of their ability. It's nice that they have a backup plan, a network of vendors, and then, you know, we grow with Qualis. So, we you know, Qualis not our competitor is a big help for us because we don't feel like we're competing. We're actually working together for the better of the patient.
 
Exactly.
 
And it's it's not just easier for hospices. It's it's better for vendors too. We believe by by working with Qualis, vendors can focus on what they do best, delivering high quality equipment and services to patients, without having to worry about complex billings and negotiating contracts with multiple hospices.
 
At the end of the day, it really all comes back to one goal which is making sure the patients get the equipment they want they need without delays, complications, or unnecessary stress.
 
One of the other things I'll add is, you know, I know, you know, our model is to always have vendor options for the hospices.
 
But the one thing I always is I always say is that one vendor is always gonna rise to the you know, the cream is gonna rise to the top. So one vendor is gonna have that have that service that's really gonna stand out for that hospice. And, you know, it's if if if the vendor is doing what they're supposed to be doing, they'll get the lion's share of of those orders from that hospice likely because, you know, if if if we can make DME forgettable for a hospice, then we've done our job.
 
I agree with that, Steve. I mean, really, to me, the DME should be the sidebar to everything. It's a needed product, but we need to be behind the scenes and, you know, just kinda put that equipment together, educate, make sure the family's comfortable, and then get out of their way because that we're the last people they wanna be dealing with when they're dealing with, a family member passing.
 
Yep. Absolutely.
 
You know, you and I have talked about technology a lot, and, you know, it's no different with DME. At Qualis, you know, we've developed the DME plus portal, to give both hospices and vendors an easy to use, centralized system for orders for managing their orders and their pickups. So this portal is designed to provide full transparency between the hospice and the vendor. So there are no surprises when it comes to deliveries, picks pickups, or or even, service issues.
 
It's a single point of access that makes, coordination easier for everyone involved.
 
RS is also working to allow our software to interface with the vendor software.
 
So that will only increase efficiencies on both sides that will ultimately benefit the hospice organization and the patient.
 
Correct.
 
And transparency for us is is a really big deal. Like, we really like that the hospice can see the what we're doing, and they can keep us accountable as well. So there's, a active record that each party can go back to if there is a failure or or even if they just need to see a status update of what's going on for a particular patient. So we do like that. We also like that, Qualis does listen when we we give suggestions on maybe there's a user interface that could work a little bit more, expeditiously or a better way of communicating, and we have, ran those to Qualis. And Qualis has been very active in trying to make some some very needed changes and make things better for both parties.
 
Yeah. You know, just to touch a little bit more on that, Gary, is, you know, you're the experts in DME.
 
You know, so when when you come to us at Qualis and and you might let us know something in our software that could be better, changed, you know, taken away for that matter, you know, we we do take that into account. We listen to our vendors, and there's been a lot of changes within our software that we've made based on vendor recommendations. So it is important for us to to not just, you know, say, hey. We we know everything about it.
 
You know, you guys do your job. Let us do ours. No. We we we really wanna stress that it's a partnership with our vendors so that we can provide the best product, not only for the vendors themselves, but ultimately, it's it's, you know, for the for the hospices to be able to, be efficient with their ordering and to have as much at their fingertips when it comes to reporting, a transparency of where that order stands.
 
It's it's it's something that we're constantly looking to develop here at Qualis.
 
Before we jump to our next slide, I just wanted to throw up another poll question here.
 
So does your hospice use a vendor management solution like Qualis, like DME plus?
 
Just wanna kinda gauge where people are at this current moment. Let me give those a second to trickle in before we move on.
 
Alright. Perfect. So it looks like we have kind of a, combination of already using Qualis, which is great. Thank you so much. And, no. We're considering it, or they manage their vendors manually.
 
So thank you for that information. Alright. I will turn it back over to y'all and move to the next slide.
 
Okay. Thank you, Chelsey.
 
Okay. So, yeah, one of the, biggest advantages, I think, of working with a vendor flexible DME management model is that hospices aren't locked into to a single provider. We've talked about that already, a little bit, in this in this webinar, but if one vendor has a stock issue or delay and the vendor can another vendor can step in to ensure that the patients still receive the equipment they need, This leads to more reliable service, which reduces stress on both hospice, staff and families.
 
You know, one of the things when I was in the vendor world, you know, it it was reassuring to know, if we had drivers call in, if we had equipment shortages.
 
You know, as much as I wanted all the business, all the census, again, it it's very difficult to do it all all at once or all all from one one vendor perspective.
 
So, it did provide relief that if if we couldn't do something, if we couldn't, fulfill that stat stat order, that we could call in to Qualis and say, hey, You know, we're just not able to do it. You know, unfortunately, we're gonna have to punt on this one and and give it to, you know, the other DME that we know that y'all work with. So, again, as much as as much as I didn't like doing that, sometimes it's inevitable.
 
I agree, Steve. I mean, there are times that that things come up out of your control, and it does give you, a backup.
 
So yeah. And and to one of your earlier statements, yes. I mean, it actually, having two vendors makes you better as the DME because you are you're vying for more of the business. So you're you're trying to step your game up, so you make sure you do get the lion's share of that business.
 
Let's not excuse me. Let's not forget cost control. When you have multiple vendors, there's a natural competition. It helps keeps, prices fair, and hospice doesn't aren't forced into overpaying just because they don't have any other vendor options. I think, you know, that's important to note.
 
Agreed.
 
So, you know, we do appreciate the new business opportunities that that, Qualis brings to global as well.
 
Qualis has been, very good about bringing us into new markets when they thought we would be a good fit for our program, and it's it's a nice partnership that we've, made with Qualis through the years.
 
I think we were one of Qualis' first vendors in many, many years ago, and it's been a very positive, relationship since the the inception of Qualys.
 
Yeah. We've we've always had a good relationship, and and we appreciate that at at Qualis. And and we have we have, you know, good relationships with multiple vendors, throughout the United States that we've had long, long relationships with.
 
You know, unlike other DME management companies, and we already talked about it, we don't sell any of our, you know, any of our equipment ourselves. That means we're not competing.
 
We're here to support you, in in, several different ways.
 
You know, at Qualis, it's important for us to have strong relationships with our vendors. We try to meet with, you as much as we can, in person. If not, you know, if not if that's not possible, we try to do it virtually just to maintain those strong relationships.
 
When we I made the point earlier about communication in relationships and and just, you know, having, multiple points of contact and keeping that communication between us and our vendors is important. Another thing we focus on is making sure that our vendors get paid promptly.
 
You know, we pay our vendors before we even get paid by our hospices, which helps manage cash flow, you know, payroll. You know, you can you know, you can rely on your payment from Qualis in a timely manner so that you can budget for it.
 
And Right.
 
And the the prompt payments the prompt payments are so important for the DME so we can, you know, keep our cash flow going and make sure that everything is running correctly on our end.
 
And I can attribute that, I mean, Qualis is always paid exactly on time.
 
You know, the other thing we we wanna do is we wanna make sure we're, providing fair rates for our hospices, but especially for our vendors as well.
 
We under we don't undercut vendors just to save, money for the hospices.
 
We negotiate rates that make sense for both sides.
 
And then the last thing that I'll say here is that, you know, we you know, you mentioned it before, our long relationship with Global, and with many of our partners is, you know, we we wanna bring new business opportunities to you when when they come up. So if if we're talking to a hospice that's in your current market, you know, we're gonna bring that to you. We wanna we wanna see if this opportunity is right for you.
 
If it is, if it's not, that's fine. But we're always gonna reach out. But the other great thing that that, you know, I think that we've talked to you about and and many of our other vendors is, you know, if there's an opportunity in a new market that you're not in, we wanna know, you know, what vendors are looking to grow, not just within the market and the footprint that they're currently in, but if they're looking to expand into new markets either within their state or even out of state. And those that we know wanna do that, you know, again, we have that relationship with them so that we can bring them new opportunities and just say, hey. Here's a here's an opportunity in this, corner of the world.
 
You know, is this something that you're interested in? Yes or no? You know? But we always wanna be able to do that, so that as we grow, we can help you grow as well if that's if that's what you're looking for.
 
Agreed. And it's also helpful that Qualis offers a single point of contract for the ordering. Instead of having the hospices juggle multiple vendors on their own, they can work through one system while having access to the multiple vendors. It helps things keep efficient on both sides. And the payments, again, as I mentioned earlier, is a big help to the DME to, you know, not not have to be running after payments. You know that payment is going to come on a certain date, and you're not having to do a lot of extra legwork to get that to happen.
 
Absolutely.
 
I think one of the things we wanna touch on before we we, wrap things up here is how much the the hospice industry is changing.
 
There's we've heard, especially since after, COVID, that we have staff shortages and rising costs and vendor flexibility isn't just a luxury. It's becoming a necessity.
 
Hospice needs every advantage they can get, and having multiple vendors that care doesn't suffer due to logistical challenges. You know?
 
Even hospices, I've seen them change, you know, bringing in technology, having more, on their plate. So, you know, the more they have to deal with in the day, whether that's patient care or, writing their notes, doing all the things they have to do, we wanna make sure, and I said this before, that DME is something that they can forget about so they can focus on the important things that they have to do to do their job and to provide the patient care that that is expected from the patients and their families.
 
Agreed. And a partnered approach seems to be the best way to do that. And partnering with partners like Qualis really do, assist the DME as well as the hospice in making the right choices for their patients.
 
It's exactly the direction we're heading. At the end of the day, it's all about patient care.
 
The more we work together, hospices, vendors, and DME managers, the the better outcomes will be involved for everybody.
 
Great.
 
Awesome. Thank you, Steve and Gary, for sharing your insights today. It's clear that vendor flexibility isn't just a nice to have anymore. It's really, game changing for hospices and vendors.
 
So before we open it up for questions, I do have one more poll to to launch.
 
So I will do that now.
 
So would you be interested in a follow-up consultation with Qualis about vendor management to hear more about our, software and services?
 
So we'll give that a second to answer.
 
And then I do wanna point everyone to the q and a.
 
Please feel free to drop in any questions that Steve and Gary can answer for y'all.
 
I'm gonna go ahead and end this. Thank you for your answers.
 
Those that said they were interested, we will reach out.
 
Alright.
 
So we do have some answer or some questions trickling in. Okay.
 
What does the process of adding new vendors to Qualis' network look like, Steve?
 
Yeah. So we have a team called the network development team, at Qualis that, you know, whenever we have a new hospice that is inquiring about using our services, you know, the first thing we do is reach out to the the network development team, first off to see what vendors we already have contracted in that in that area. So, you know, companies such as global, medical products is, you know, we're gonna reach out to them first.
 
So the other thing is is if, we're in an area that we don't have vendor coverage or we have very thin vendor coverage, you know, that team, that network development team is, always sleuthing the area for new vendors that we can reach out to, you know, making sure that they, work with hospices because not all DME vendors work and provide DME, for hospices. So that's a big question that we always ask. And if they do, you know, can they cover all the counties?
 
And again, it's okay. We always tell our vendors, it's okay if you don't cover the full footprint of a hospice, and that's where that vendor flexibility and that vendor choice comes in. Because if if one can't do you know, let's just say there's seven counties and they can only do four of the seven, you know, then, again, that network development team works at making sure that we have, vendors for all the counties provided, that that that the hospice, provides care in.
 
And so, you know, again, we're constantly, working to to look for new options, if if our vendor coverage is that. But, again, we're always bringing in the good vendors that we were work with, first to give them the first opportunity to to grow with us.
 
If a hospice is happy with its current vendors, can it still benefit from Qualis?
 
Absolutely. So are we talking about if they're direct with a hospice?
 
Mhmm. Yep. So, you know, we if they're happy with their vendor, sometimes they're just looking for an ordering portal, to to create efficiencies within their hospice. So, you know, a lot of times, we'll contract with a vendor.
 
You know, we're not trying to switch things up. So if you're happy with your vendor and you just wanna use Qualis' management services, their ordering portal, the team that we have that looks at every, every order, note, and pickup request that comes in, that can help manage that DME to make it, make it forgettable for you. Sure. Bring your vendor with you, and we'll work with them.
 
We'll work at contracting them at a at a fair price for for both them and the hospice. And, yeah. So bring them along. BYOV.
 
Bring your own vendor, if you will.
 
How does Qualis ensure vendor quality and reliability?
 
Well, we're always we're always working with our vendors. Again, we have relationships with them. We have a, you know, a team at at Qualis that works nonstop at, again, looking at those orders as they come in.
 
You know, again, they're looking at the portal. That portal provides transparency on both ends for the hospice and the vendor. And and we see that too. So, you know, there's a lot of times where a vendor may, you know, not complete the order or not complete the progress of the order.
 
They may have stepped away from their desk, to work on something. So our team's looking at that, and they're, you know, coming in to make sure calling the vendor saying, hey. Is there a reason why this this order hasn't been accepted yet? Can you deliver this today?
 
And that's again where, you know, maybe they can't or maybe they just forgot about it. So our team is doing that, but we're always, you know, working at, you know, if there's any complaints that come in, we're working with that vendor to make sure that, you know, we identify what it was.
 
You know, no one's gonna be perfect. You know, DME, it's it's tough.
 
So you you might have a bad day. You may have a driver that just a delivery technician who just, you know, had a bad day, had a bad moment.
 
You know, so we're always working with the vendors to make sure that if there's an issue that came up, that we're working with the vendor. And also not only that, but then once we do that, we're we're going back to the hospice to let them know that this this, you know, issue has been taken care of, and that we did some training if if needed so that it doesn't happen again.
 
I think we're at time. If we didn't get to your question or you have additional questions, we're going to send out this recording afterwards.
 
So feel free to, respond to that, and we can get you in touch with the right people.
 
I just wanna say thank you again to Steve and Gary for joining us today.
 
It's been a pleasure hearing you talk.
 
So have a great day, all.
 
Chelsey, and thank you, Gary.
 
Thank you so much.
 
Have a good day.
 
Bye, guys.
 
Bye bye.