In 2006, the businessman Casey Hoyt and his longtime friend Mike Moore, a respiratory therapist, launched a health care startup focused on the home respiratory care, which was not widely available at the time in the Lafayette region.
During the nearly two decades that followed, Viemed health care became a listed company of 1,500 employees which modifies the way in which home respiratory therapy is delivered to patients with diseases such as MPOC, SLA and sleep apnea using new technologies and non -invasive ventilation devices.
It has thousands of patients in the 50 states and recently reported annual net income of more than $ 224.3 million, up 23% compared to 2023.
VIEMED is one of the many health care companies in Lafayette, which help diversify an economy traditionally dominated by the petroleum and gas industry. As if to highlight this modification of the dynamics, the company’s head office is located in the old office building in Stone Energy Downtown.
“We are really a small town that strikes over our weight in terms of health care incubator,” said Hoyt, CEO of Viemed. “We are recruiting health care talents in New Orleans. Here we have a locally group of entrepreneurs who have changed this story of oil and healthy oil and gas. »»
In the activities that talk about this week, Hoyt and Moore, now the president of the company, talk about what is to grow income from Viemed, how late the company has grown and its latest efforts to help patients with sleep apnea.
This interview has been modified for more clarity.
How do you all do? What is your specialty to develop your customers?
Hoyt: Our patient is usually a patient in Mpoc or a SLA patient, someone who is very sick and at the end of life. Their lungs fail and they are regularly outside the hospital. We treat them by putting a respiratory therapist at home with them to hold their hand and offer a future level of care. Our competitors deliver wheelchairs, walkers, goods, CPAPs and fans, but they are more a logistical deposit company. We are very concentrated on the clinical level and generally work inside the hospital with the pulmonologist, then become an extension of cases management to effectively rid this patient in the house. It is therefore a continuum of care, from hospital to home.
Your income continues to be considerably increasing each quarter. Can you give me an overview of what’s going on?
Hoyt: What stimulates income is really the complex respiratory side of the company. Sleep pushes a nice clip. All our companies are currently increasing, but the demand for these services – our market penetration is 6% across the country. It is all our combined competitors. Thus, 94% of people who need us do not get it at the moment. They do not know that it is available. But this is where the possibility for our business is to develop. It is a lot of demand, many patients in need and, therefore, you see our income increase to one record number from one quarter to another, from one year to another.
How many patients has increased in recent years. Do you now have patients and therapists across the country?
Hoyt: We have patients in the 50 states and very good coverage in 38 of the 50. We must have respiratory therapists in the 50 to support them. We have a big geographic gap to strike. We started in Louisiana and probably have 80% of the market share here, but we still have work to do, just in Louisiana. Texas has recently become our number one state for (number of) patients, but there is still a ton of work to do in Texas.
Can you break down your patients by treatment?
Moore: We treat nearly 3,000 patients per month for sleep apnea. With MPOC, that most people associate this with smoking and pulmonary diseases, we integrate around 1,500 patients in oxygen therapy per month. For fans, nearly 1,000 per month on board. We have touched several hundred thousand patients at our creation. Most of these patients do not live long, but some do it. We have a wide range of patients with different diseases. But when we enter this house, it is an intense treatment. It’s emotional. The family is involved. It’s always a sad story.
Sleep apnea seems to be one of these more common conditions than people think. Your business has done interesting things in this space. What kind of results do you see?
Hoyt: Probably 80% of people with sleep apnea are not treated. The great thing that stimulates our sleep company is the prescription of the drug GLP-1, the weight loss drug. Many people treat their weight loss and lead more patients in internal medicine and family practice cabinets. Consequently, they discover more needs to treat sleep apnea, because, generally, people who have trouble being overweight are generally struggling with a form of sleep apnea. They tend to order a CPAP or a home sleep study with the drug GLP-1.
VIEMED is still developing and you are considering other acquisitions in the future. How do you sell yourself to develop in the future?
Hoyt: Our patients are the frequent flyers of the hospital and the doctor’s office. Once we have built these patient successes, this is what we have to run to tell the next city on what we have done here. Today we have three published studies. We have a 16% reduction in mortality with this patient base. For all and a half patients, we therapy, we save a life. We also save money if we get them in therapy. In the first 30 days, we can save $ 5,400 per patient per year by preventing them from entering the hospital. The payer is therefore encouraged to adopt our programs.