In terms of achieving further growth and hitting on key goals, Viemed Healthcare Inc. (Nasdaq: VMD) is ahead of schedule.

That’s according to the Lafayette, Louisiana-based home medical equipment (HME) company’s leadership team, which offered an update on Viemed and its 2024 strategic priorities during a first-quarter earnings call earlier this month.

The positive start to 2024 comes despite a major financial hurdle in the Change Healthcare cyberattack.

“I’m excited to share that the first quarter of 2024 has set a solid foundation for Viemed’s trajectory this year,” Viemed CEO Casey Hoyt said during the Q1 earnings call. “Operationally, we are ahead of schedule despite encountering some cash-flow disruptions related to the Change Healthcare situation … .”

Viemed was founded as Sleep Management in 2006 by Casey Hoyt and Michael Moore. The company rebranded to Viemed in 2014.

Its core business is in-home medical equipment and post-acute respiratory health care services, with clinical practitioners providing therapy and counseling to patients in their homes.

One highlight for Viemed in 2024’s first quarter was the deal it executed for a majority stake in East Alabama HomeMed, which offers HME services to patients within the East Alabama Health network.

Moving forward, Viemed hopes to convert on similar health system and hospital joint ventures to propel its business forward faster, according to Hoyt, who confirmed that discussions with other potential JV partners were already actively underway.

“This partnership exemplifies our belief in leveraging synergies between Viemed’s clinical expertise and business acumen, with the immediate patient needs within the hospital networks,” Hoyt said. “This model will account for bringing more service and technology into the home for the patients of East Alabama, while cultivating an improved complex respiratory program inside of the medical center.”

Viemed is filling up its transaction pipeline with other deals, too.

“Our mergers-and-acquisition pipeline is gaining traction, and we are starting to see more con-versations and activities from prospective targets,” Hoyt continued. “With that being said, we remain steadfast in our commitment to organic growth as a primary driver of our business.”

Growing the core business

Net revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, were $50.6 million. That’s a whopping 28% increase over Viemed’s net revenues reported for the comparable quarter ended March 31, 2023.

Changes to Viemed’s sales structure contributed to those solid financial results, according to Hoyt.

“Our new sales restructuring is showing tremendous success, with sales rep bid production up over 30% from Q4, putting us ahead of schedule of achieving our internal goals for the year,” he said. “The structure has proven out to help keep our managers and trainers closer to home, which is making them more effective in the field, working with new and existing reps.”

Beyond the macro-level shift to home in health care, an external tailwind for Viemed in the future may come in the form of advancements in consumer wearable technology.

In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted De Novo authorization for the sleep apnea feature on the Samsung Health Monitor app, which could be used with the compatible Samsung Galaxy Watch and phone.

With consumers being able to better detect sleep apnea, more people might seek treatment – and the assistance of HME companies. That’s especially true if other wearable makers follow suit, such as Google or Apple.

“The emergence of these technological advancements stands to streamline the diagnosis of sleep therapy into the mainstream population,” Hoyt said. “We expect this development would be significant to growth in our sleep and resupply business.”

Recovering from the Change Healthcare ordeal

While much of Viemed’s Q1 call focused on positive developments, the leadership team also provided an update on the disruptions caused by the Change Healthcare cyberattack.

A massive cyberattack that occurred in February knocked Change Healthcare – a subsidiary of the behemoth global health company UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) – offline. In turn, health-care providers of all types had to deal with a backlog of unpaid claims.

In addition to unpaid claims, an estimated one-third of Americans had sensitive health information leaked to the dark web as a result of the attack.

On its end, Viemed began to redirect certain claims during March to alternate payment clearing houses to help mitigate Change disruptions.

“While we were able to move swiftly on some of our larger carriers, the process to redirect all of our payers remains ongoing,” Todd Zehnder, COO of Viemed, said during the Q1 call. “We are confident that we have moved the majority of the dollars and have seen payments pick up over the last few weeks.”

Viemed is “optimistic” that the vast majority of its delayed cash deposits should be caught up by the second quarter.

“Our goal currently is to make sure the Change situation turns out only to be a delay in cash collections,” Zehnder said. “And in order to do that, our team is working diligently to make sure all claims are filed and accepted through alternate options.”