While I would never claim to have a crystal ball, I can tell you that there are a few issues that will likely have significant effects on respiratory-focused durable medical equipment (DME) companies going into and during 2021. Here are three that stand out.

Pre-COVID-19, a merger and acquisition (M&A) deal that followed an 80/10/10 structure was fairly common. In such in a transaction, up to 80% of a company's purchase price would be afforded to the seller as an upfront, cash proceed, at least 10% of the company's purchase price would be in the form of rollover equity, and at least 10% of the company's purchase price would be in the form of deferred proceeds (e.g., an earn-out or seller note).

How is the COVID-19 pandemic going to affect healthcare businesses in the short and long term? We asked leaders from several companies to share their responses to this question, which are below. Following these responses, David Coit of VERTESS shares his thoughts about how the health crisis is affecting healthcare business valuation.

Much has been said about the social and business opportunities buried within the COVID-19 crisis. Who hasn't been on a video conference when someone tried to invoke Sir Winston Churchill's quote: "Never let a good crisis go to waste."

In the middle of May, I had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with leaders in the field of providing support services to individuals affected by intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) during which we discussed the impact of COVID-19 on our services. This group consisted of direct service providers, area agency/managed care providers, and those who help with consulting and/or planning services. Representatives shared their current perspective of COVID-19 and how their services were affected, how they are planning for the "next phase" of communities opening back up, and the possibility of another lockdown.

While home medical equipment (HME) providers are well-recognized for adapting to change, especially as insurance companies shift requirements and the healthcare industry matures, what happened with COVID-19 blindsided everyone. Planning and projections went out the window. Now, we're trying to settle into a "new normal" that keeps changing.

By mid-to-late March, we all felt the immediate effects of the "lockdown" of our communities. Some healthcare businesses stopped services entirely while others saw a large dip in those offered. Organizations with a diversified payor source probably fared better than single-source providers, everyone felt the effects. At VERTESS, we had some deals stop, some slowed or paused, and others moved along. Progress — or lack thereof — all depended on the confidence of the buyer and ability of the seller to adjust.

The time has come when we are all being forced to embrace technology, whether we like it or not. Before the coronavirus pandemic, some businesses implemented extensive information technology (IT) solutions to support their operations while others resisted. In these unprecedented times, we will need to not only embrace technology, but rely on it.

While all of healthcare has been hit hard by the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, some industries have been affected more than others. Much of the news has focused on the impact to those facilities providing care to clients and patients, such as nursing homes, senior living, hospitals, and urgent care centers, there's another industry that's been greatly impacted but is under the radar: pharmacy.

Integrated care is one of the big buzz words in the human services industry. Integrated care is fundamentally the combination of primary healthcare and mental healthcare in a single setting for the purpose of creating a team-based approach to general and mental care. As managed care becomes more commonplace in human services, payers are pressing for its providers to achieve the objectives of integrated care. As a result, providers are finding themselves tasked with the challenge of further decreasing cost while improving outcomes for those receiving support services.

As we get closer to the end of the year, it’s a good time to take a step back and assess the healthcare market — more specifically, what’s been happening and what’s likely to come. There’s no denying that the healthcare landscape is changing rapidly. 2019 has been a year where every sector has experienced disruption. If you want to succeed in 2020 and beyond, you must understand and be prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

To better help you accomplish these objectives, here are brief summaries of some of the most significant areas that rattled the healthcare industry this year and are likely to pick up steam as we enter the new year.

There's some good news for owners of durable medical equipment (DME) and home medical equipment (HME) businesses: The transactions market (i.e., mergers and acquisitions) is not too hot and not too cold, but just right at the moment.