Claim to Fame

On the Claim to Fame DME podcast, Kevin Gearheart, president and partner of Rehab Medical, explains how complex rehab technology (CRT) differs from other DME because it is highly specialized, involves many stakeholders (patients, physicians, caregivers, therapists, ATPs, and insurers), and requires a longer, carefully managed process focused on speed and communication. He shares why he’s committed to the mission—helping...

On the Claim to Fame DME podcast, Alex and Wayne interview BJ Anderson, president of QP3 Training Systems, a second-generation family business specializing in growing organic DME and CRT revenue through referral sales training. Anderson says many teams fail to grow referrals because reps don’t explicitly ask for the business, don’t define differentiators, and get commoditized by selling products instead of outcomes. He ...

On the Claim to Fame DME podcast, hosts interview David Gelbard, CEO and co-founder of Parachute Health, about building a national DME e-prescribing network. Gelbard explains Parachute was inspired by his father not receiving a post-surgery walker due to a failed fax process, and describes the platform as enabling clinicians to place online DME orders that are validated against insurance criteria to reduce rework and delays. He dis...

On the Claim to Fame DME podcast, Alex and Wayne interview Jason Ivey, National Accounts Manager at Motif Medical, a maternity-focused manufacturer offering breast pumps plus pregnancy supports, postpartum recovery products, milk storage bags, and billable resupply parts. Ivy explains that maternal health is a growing diversification opportunity for DME providers amid reimbursement cuts and competitive bidding in other categories, ...

On the Claim to Fame DME podcast, healthcare attorney Stephen Bittinger of Polsinelli explains how he defends providers against payer audits and sues payers for unpaid or denied claims. He says DME suppliers are frequent audit targets due to complex, changing rules, often identified through payer data mining or watch lists. Common provider mistakes include poor document production; he advises making records organized, chronological...

On the Claim to Fame DME podcast, Patty Gatter, founder of The Breastfeeding Shop, shares how she started the company in 2015 as a mom and breastfeeding advocate after recognizing that the Affordable Care Act would make breast pumps a covered insurance benefit starting January 2015. Drawing on prior DME and manufacturing experience plus social media marketing, she grew quickly by going direct-to-consumer online rather than traditio...

On the Claim to Fame DME podcast, Alex and Wayne interview Matt Edwards, CEO of Gemcore, a second-generation family business founded in 1992 that evolved from an over-the-counter mail order catalog into diabetes supply distribution after seeing demand and limited distribution for diabetes devices. Edwards shares his path from entry-level sales to leadership and lessons on understanding workflows firsthand, open communication, netwo...

On the Claim to Fame DME podcast, Eran Orr, founder of XR Health and former Israeli F-16 pilot, explains how a whiplash injury led him to build a VR therapy company that now offers 150+ FDA Class 2 applications across physical therapy, occupational therapy, mental health, and pain management. He discusses the evolution from expensive, tethered VR to affordable Meta Quest hardware and how CMS reimbursement for VR-based cognitive beh...

In the 50th episode of the Claim to Fame DME podcast, hosts Alex and Wayne interview Michael Kutsak , CEO and founder of NikoHealth, who previously owned and operated a DME and experienced frustrations with outdated, fragmented software and workflows. Kutsak explains how legacy systems force providers to juggle disconnected tools across order intake, compliance, logistics, inventory, billing, and reimbursement, making training and ...

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&r...

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 NCA...

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...

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 ...

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), disc...

On this episode Alex and Wayne interview Mathew Mammen of Ashwin AI, who shares his background as a software engineer, longtime DME owner, founder of a sleep diagnostics software platform, and leader at Prochant, and explains how DME “decisioning” from referral to cash is broken by portals, paperwork, faxes, conflicting orders, and repeated human adjudication that create rework and slow payment. He describes Ashwin AI a...

Alex and Wayne interview Brad Smith of Vertes, a healthcare M&A firm focused on DME/HME, to discuss the grow-vs-sell decision and current market dynamics. Brad shares his background building a Texas DME company, expanding from mobility into oxygen via acquisition, completing a private equity recap in 2004, pursuing a continuum-of-care acquisition strategy, and ultimately selling after Medicare competitive bidding in 2008; he th...

In this episode for the Claim to Fame podcast, Alex and Wayne interview Wade West, Vice President of MaskFit AR, about the company’s facial scanning technology designed to help CPAP patients find the right mask and size the first time. West explains MaskFit AR’s origins (about 14 years in development), its mask recommendations based on facial anatomy plus clinical questions (pressure, sleep position, deviated septum), a...

Alex and Wayne interview Wes Hopper of Why Success Happens about helping DME providers grow without adding costs. Hopper shares his 30-year background across distribution, manufacturing, and consulting and says leaders are overwhelmed by fires, regulatory change, and profitability pressures while trying to put patients first. He argues providers should focus on lowering cost—not just price—by managing cost drivers in pr...

On the Claim to Fame podcast, Dewey Roof of Valere Health shares his 30-year DME/HME background, including selling an HME to Adapt Health in 2021, and explains how Valer Health emerged from internal software built around 2016–2017. After shifting strategy with CTO Doug Thornton, Valere adopted a data event streaming architecture to act as an underlying “utility” or “central nervous system” that connect...