Episode #39: HME News Editor Liz Beaulieu on DME Trends, Medtrade Takeaways, and the Shifting Payer Landscape

Alex and Wayne interview Liz Beaulieu, editor of HME News, about her background in trade publishing and how HME News covers the home medical equipment industry through print, a daily-updated website, and newsletters produced largely by a two-person editorial team.

What’s Covered?

Liz discusses what has and hasn’t changed in DME, citing technology as the biggest shift while issues like competitive bidding persist. She identifies the payer environment as a major current theme. From Medtrade, she observed a strong tech-company presence and attendees moving from being overwhelmed to asking detailed questions about compliance, audits, and fit. They also discuss likely consolidation among AI “point solutions,” how HME News decides what’s newsworthy (“What’s in it for Mario?”), top-read stories, and the HME News Summit in Louisville, Oct. 12–14.

• Podcast Episode: HME News Editor Liz Beaulieu on DME Trends, Medtrade Takeaways, and the Shifting Payer Landscape
• Guest: Liz Beaulieu, Editor, HME News
• Hosts: Alex & Wayne (NikoHealth)

(1:18) Introduction — Who Is Liz Beaulieu?

Liz Beaulieu is the editor of HME News, which she describes as, at its core, a business newspaper covering the entire home medical equipment industry — still producing a monthly print issue, alongside a daily-updated website and email newsletters that go out several times a week. The editorial operation is lean: Liz and managing editor Teresa Flaherty write roughly 98% of everything that runs across the publication, website, and newsletter.

(3:13) A Career Built Entirely in Trade Publishing

Liz has been with HME News for more than two decades combined, though not continuously. After journalism school and a stint at a local newspaper, she moved into trade publications — first covering call center news at a sister publication, then joining HME News, where she worked under longtime industry figures Jim Sullivan and Mike Moran. She left for two years of grad school and came back, meaning her current stretch alone is over ten years.

(5:30) What Hasn’t Changed Might Be More Interesting Than What Has

Liz flips the usual framing: rather than only cataloguing what’s changed, she points out how much has stayed the same. The return of competitive bidding, for instance, is something HME News has covered on and off for more than ten years. Where things have genuinely shifted is technology — a decade ago, the biggest strategic question for providers was whether to outsource part of their business, since most ran similar software. That landscape has been reshaped entirely by the wave of new software and technology companies that have entered the space in just the past few years.

(7:05) The Payer Environment Is the Theme Right Now

Liz went into Medtrade expecting competitive bidding and the moratorium on new Medicare enrollment for DMEPOS suppliers to dominate conversation — and they did come up. But the bigger theme, in her view, was the payer environment. One of HME News’s most-read recent stories covered CareCentrix’s move to manage a Blue Cross Blue Shield DME benefit in one state — a shift she sees echoed elsewhere, including in Oregon, with other companies like Molina doing similar things in different states.

(8:23) A More Complicated Payer Landscape Than Even a Decade Ago

Liz notes the payer mix has shifted dramatically — from roughly 80% Medicare / 20% other payers a decade or more ago to something closer to a 50-50 or 60-40 split today, driven heavily by Medicare Advantage, which now covers at least half of Medicare beneficiaries. Where providers once mainly dealt with Medicare fee-for-service or cash sales, they’re now navigating traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage, managed Medicaid programs, and commercial insurers all at once.

(10:05) Medtrade Takeaways: From Overwhelmed to Asking the Right Questions

Liz observed a much bigger, more polished tech-company presence at this year’s show. More notably, provider attendees have shifted from being overwhelmed by the sheer number of new tools (as in prior years) to asking sharp, specific questions: Will this pass an audit? Who is this actually good for — my business, or my referral source? That shift toward evaluating fit and compliance, rather than just discovering that new tools exist, came up repeatedly in her conversations on the floor.

(13:19) New Exhibitors and Non-Tech Innovation on the Floor

Of the roughly 360 exhibitors at this year’s show, about 116 were new — a sizable share, and not just tech companies. Liz highlights a few physical-product examples: a Netherlands-based company making a Scandinavian-styled, height-adjustable toilet seat, drawing on standing-desk design principles; a UK-based company setting up in Texas with a portable car-mounted scooter lift; and a pair of entrepreneurs — one a former t-shirt designer — exploring whether there’s a market for more colorful, design-forward DME.

(15:27) What’s Generating the Most Buzz

Tech companies remain the biggest draw on the floor, according to Liz — a trend that’s held for a couple of years running now.

(16:17) Is AI in DME Headed for Consolidation?

Both Liz and the hosts see consolidation coming among the growing number of AI point solutions in DME — a theme also raised on an investor panel at a recent industry summit in Cleveland. The expectation: either a small number of players emerge as clear leaders, or existing platforms absorb point solutions into broader, more packaged offerings. Liz sees AI companies starting to carve out real niches — some built for out-of-the-box, plug-and-play use, others for highly tailored, bespoke workflows.

(20:02) How HME News Decides What’s Newsworthy

HME News operates on a long-standing internal principle: “What’s in it for Mario?” — a nod to a former regional provider reader. Stories that come from providers describing a real concern, challenge, or something exciting happening in their business are almost always worth covering, since that’s what their reader base — other providers — wants to read. On the manufacturer side, routine new-product announcements generally don’t rise to the level of a story; something like Inogen (known for portable oxygen concentrators) entering the CPAP mask category is newsworthy because it signals a bigger strategic shift toward being a comprehensive respiratory player.

(22:16) The Most-Read Stories of the Year So Far

Liz’s rundown of top stories: the moratorium on new Medicare enrollment for DMEPOS suppliers, the Blue Cross Blue Shield/CareCentrix story, Drive Medical’s acquisition of Compass, and the related news that Kingswood — the investor backing Drive Medical — is also closing a deal for Quipt Home Medical (notable because the same investor sits on both the provider and manufacturer sides). Sleep Res’s Cricket device also drew significant reader interest. HME News additionally mines public companies’ earnings calls — since firms like AdaptHealth won’t give interviews directly — pulling details such as a recent major contract (believed to be with Kaiser, alongside an existing Humana relationship) that wouldn’t otherwise be public.

(24:48) The Biggest DME Headline, 5–10 Years From Now?

Liz declines to speculate — only half-joking that with so much currently in flux across healthcare broadly, predicting the industry’s next big headline feels genuinely hard to call.

(25:55) Rapid Fire Round

• One snack to survive on forever? Left unanswered on the recording — a tough one even for Liz.
• Most random thing in your bag right now? A pair of her daughter’s ski socks, headed for donation.
• If you had a warning label, what would it say? “Tread lightly.”
• A completely free Saturday with zero responsibilities? Skiing.
• If your personality had a mascot animal? Tiger.
• Morning person or night owl? Morning person.