What Is DME Experience? Understanding Durable Medical Equipment Experience in Healthcare

HME generally refers to home medical equipment, particularly equipment used by patients in their homes. DME is a broader industry term associated with durable medical equipment.

In practice, many organizations operate within both HME and DME.

Professionals working in these organizations may therefore need experience across multiple functions, including patient intake, respiratory equipment, mobility products, billing, delivery, resupply, inventory, and payer management.

Understanding the relationship between HME and DME can be especially useful for employees working at companies with diverse product lines.

How DME Experience Is Developed

DME experience usually develops through a combination of employment, training, education, and repeated exposure to real-world workflows.

A person can gain experience by working in:

• DME billing
• Patient intake
• Insurance verification
• Authorization
• Medical records
• Warehouse operations
• DME delivery
• Customer service
• Revenue cycle management
• Sales
• Compliance
• Operations management
• DME software support

Experience can also develop through specialization.

For example, someone might begin in customer service and gradually learn insurance verification, billing, authorization, and revenue cycle management. Over time, that employee develops a broader understanding of the DME business.

DME Experience and Technology

Technology has changed how DME companies manage their operations.