ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
We operate in a rapidly changing environment that involves numerous uncertainties and risks. In addition to the other information included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the following risks and uncertainties may have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, or stock price. You should consider these risks and uncertainties carefully, together with all of the other information included or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The risks and uncertainties described below may not be the only ones we face. If any of the risks or uncertainties we face were to occur, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. This Annual Report on Form 10-K also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of factors that are described below and elsewhere in this report.
Risk factors include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the following:
Risks related to our business and strategy:
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the intense international, national, regional and local competition we face in our industry;
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our dependence on a limited number of customers for a significant portion of our sales revenue;
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our reliance on a single source or a limited group of manufacturers or suppliers;
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the need to continue to enhance our existing products and develop and market new products;
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potential acquisitions of, or investments in, other companies;
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the complex and lengthy reimbursement process we depend upon for a significant portion of our revenue;
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increases in our operating costs;
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economic impacts that affect customer and consumer spending as well as demand for our products;
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public health threats and epidemics;
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the lack of long-term supply contracts with many of our third-party suppliers;
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the competitive bidding process or other reimbursement policy changes under Medicare or other third-party payors, including recently enacted and potential future changes in the reimbursement rates or payment methodologies under Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs;
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consolidation in the healthcare industry;
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healthcare reform measures;
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the possibility our manufacturing facilities could become unavailable or inoperable and other potential manufacturing problems or delays;
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our reliance upon a third-party contract manufacturer for certain manufacturing and repair operations;
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potential failure to maintain or obtain new private payor contracts and future reductions in reimbursement rates from private payors;
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our ability to manage our anticipated growth effectively;
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the possibility of non-payment of our HME providers, distributors, private label partners and resellers;
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our international sales and manufacturing activities;
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warranty or product liability claims or other litigation;
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our dependence on the services of our senior executives and other key technical personnel;
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variance in our financial condition and results of operations; and
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the market opportunities for our products.
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Risks related to the regulatory environment:
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extensive federal, state, and international regulations related to our business by numerous government agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA and the European Medical Devices regulation;
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the potential need to seek additional clearances or approvals for our products; and
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potential FDA, state, or international regulatory enforcement action and other penalties.
Risks related to our intellectual property:
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our ability to secure and maintain patent or other intellectual property protection for the intellectual property used in our products;
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the possibility that any of our patents may be challenged, invalidated, circumvented or rendered unenforceable; and
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patent and other intellectual property litigation if our products infringe or appear to infringe the intellectual property rights of others.
Risks related to being a public company:
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increased costs as a result of operating as a public company and the substantial time our management will be required to devote to compliance initiatives and corporate governance practices; and
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our ability to maintain effective internal controls.
Risks related to our common stock:
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the volatility of the trading price of our common stock;
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the publication of research reports by securities or industry analysts;
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potential sales of a large number of shares of our common stock;
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anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law; and
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our intention not to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
Risks related to our business and strategy
We face intense international, national, regional and local competition and if we are unable to compete successfully, it could have an adverse effect on our revenue, revenue growth rate, if any, and market share.
The long-term oxygen therapy market is a highly competitive industry. We compete with a number of manufacturers and distributors of portable oxygen concentrators (POCs), as well as providers of other long-term oxygen therapy solutions such as home delivery of oxygen tanks or cylinders, stationary concentrators, transfilling concentrators, and liquid oxygen.
Our significant manufacturing competitors are Respironics (a subsidiary of Koninklijke Philips N.V.), Caire Medical (subsidiary of NGK Spark Plug), DeVilbiss Healthcare (a subsidiary of Drive Medical), O2 Concepts, Precision Medical, Gas Control Equipment (subsidiary of Colfax), Nidek Medical, 3B Medical, SysMed, and Belluscura. Respironics, which announced in early 2024 that it would be leaving the U.S. portable oxygen concentrator market until further regulatory assessments but continues to have product in the market. Given the relatively straightforward regulatory path in the oxygen therapy device manufacturing market, we expect that the industry will become increasingly competitive in the future. For example, some major competitors have implemented direct-to-consumer sales models, which may increase their competitiveness and sales to patients, and we have recently seen the cost per generated lead trend higher than historical averages that may in part be due to increased competition. However, the strategies of these major competitors are currently limited to direct-to-consumer sales and do not include direct-to-consumer rentals where they would be responsible to meet national accreditation and state-by-state licensing requirements and secure Medicare billing privileges. Manufacturing companies compete for sales to providers primarily on the basis of price, quality/reliability, financing, bundling, product features, and service.
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For many years, Lincare, Inc. (a subsidiary of the Linde Group), Apria Healthcare, Inc., AdaptHealth Corp., Rotech Healthcare, Inc., and Viemed Healthcare, Inc. have been among the market leaders in providing respiratory therapy products, while the remaining market is serviced by local providers. Because of reimbursement reductions, we expect more industry consolidation and volatility in ordering patterns based on how providers are restructuring their businesses and their access to capital. In addition, providers may reduce or eliminate purchases from us due to our increased focus on building out a prescriber sales team and pursuing rentals directly, which could be in competition with our providers in the United States. Respiratory therapy providers compete primarily on the basis of product features and service, rather than price, since reimbursement levels are established by Medicare and Medicaid, or by the individual determinations of private payors.
Some of our competitors are large, well-capitalized companies with greater resources than we have. Consequently, they are able to spend more aggressively on product development, marketing, sales and other product initiatives than we can. Some of these competitors have:
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significantly greater name recognition;
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established relationships with healthcare professionals, customers and third-party payors;
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established distribution networks;
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additional lines of products, and the ability to offer rebates or bundle products to offer higher discounts, lower pricing, longer warranties, financing or extended terms, other incentives to gain a competitive advantage;
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greater history in conducting research and development, manufacturing, marketing and obtaining regulatory approval for respiratory device products; and
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greater financial and human resources for product development, sales and marketing, and patent litigation.
As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standard regulatory and reimbursement development and customer requirements or changing or uncertain business conditions or macroeconomic trends, including supply chain challenges. In light of these advantages that our competitors maintain, even if our technology and direct-to-consumer distribution strategy is more effective than the technology and distribution strategy of our competitors, including those who have adopted or may in the future adopt direct-to-consumer sales models, current or potential customers might accept competitor products and services in lieu of purchasing our products. We anticipate that we will face increased competition in the future as existing companies and competitors develop new or improved products and distribution strategies and as new companies enter the market with new technologies and distribution strategies. We may not be able to compete effectively against these organizations. Our ability to compete successfully and to increase our market share is dependent upon our reputation for providing responsive, professional and high-quality products and services and achieving strong customer satisfaction. Increased competition in the future could adversely affect our revenue, revenue growth rate, margins and market share.
We depend on a limited number of customers for a significant portion of our sales revenue and the loss of, or a significant shortfall in demand from, these customers could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results.
We receive a significant amount of our sales revenue from a limited number of customers, including distributors, HME providers, our private label partner, resellers, and charitable organizations. For the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021, sales revenue to our top 10 customers accounted for approximately 25.2%, 30.5% and 27.4%, respectively, of our total revenue. Medicare's service reimbursement programs represented more than 10% of our total revenue for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021. We expect that sales to relatively few customers will continue to account for a significant percentage of our total revenue in future periods. Our future success will significantly depend upon the timing and volume of business from our largest customers and the financial and operational success of these customers. However, we can provide no assurance that any of these customers or any of our other customers will continue to purchase our products at current levels, pricing, or at all, and our revenue could fluctuate significantly due to changes in customer order levels, economic conditions, the adoption of competitive products, or the loss of, reduction of business with, or less favorable terms with any of our largest customers. For example, we have previously experienced a decline in sales to one large national homecare provider who purchased through our private label partner. We have also experienced a decline in sales from other HME providers and these providers have communicated to us that they continue to be subject to capital constraints. If we were tolose one of our key customers or have a key customer significantly reduce its volume of business with us, such as we previously experienced with the large national homecare provider, our revenue may be materially reduced and there would be an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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We obtain some of the components, subassemblies and completed products included in our products from a single source or a limited group of manufacturers or suppliers, and in some cases components required to manufacture and assemble our products are available in only limited supplies from limited manufacturers or suppliers, and the partial or complete loss of one or more of these manufacturers or suppliers or limitation on availability could cause significant production delays or stoppages, an inability to meet customer demand, substantial loss in revenue, and an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
We utilize single-source suppliers for some of the components and subassemblies we use in our Inogen One systems and our Inogen At Home systems. For example, we have elected to source certain key components from single sources of supply, including our batteries, motors, valves, and some molded plastic components. Many of our products also utilize components that are available from a limited number of suppliers. Our dependence on single-source or limited-source suppliers of components may expose us to several risks, including, among other things:
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our suppliers or their component sub-suppliers may be unable to meet demands due to global supply chain disruptions;
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we may experience delays in delivery by our suppliers due to customs clearing delays, shipping delays, scarcity of raw materials and components or changes in demand from us or their other customers;
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our suppliers may be unable to meet demands due to the effect of exposure to infectious diseases, epidemics or other public health emergencies, or due to acts of terrorism, hostilities, military conflict or war, including the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the war in Ukraine;
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we may not be able to find new or alternative components, even at elevated prices, or reconfigure our system and manufacturing processes in a timely manner if the necessary components become unavailable, which could lead to a production slowdown or temporary stoppage;
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our suppliers may encounter financial hardships as a result of unfavorable economic and market conditions unrelated to our demand for components, which could inhibit their ability to fulfill our orders and meet our requirements;
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suppliers may fail to comply with regulatory requirements, be subject to lengthy compliance, validation or qualification periods, or make errors in manufacturing components that could negatively affect the performance or safety of our products, cause delays in supplying of our products to our customers, or result in regulatory enforcement against us or our suppliers;
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newly identified suppliers may not qualify under the stringent quality regulatory standards to which our business is subject, which could inhibit their ability to fulfill our orders and meet our requirements;
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we or our suppliers may not be able to respond to unanticipated changes in customer orders, and if orders do not match forecasts, we or our suppliers may have excess or inadequate inventory of materials and components;
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we may be subject to price fluctuations due to a lack of long-term supply arrangements for key components or changes in import tariffs, trade restrictions or barriers or other government actions that impact our ability to obtain such components;
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we or our suppliers may lose access to critical services, tools, moldings, and components, resulting in an interruption in the manufacture, assembly and shipment of our systems;
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our suppliers may be subject to allegations by other parties of misappropriation of proprietary information in connection with their supply of products to us, which could inhibit their ability to fulfill our orders and meet our requirements;
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fluctuations in demand for products that our suppliers manufacture for others may affect their ability or willingness to deliver components to us in a timely manner; and
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our suppliers may wish to discontinue supplying components or services to us.
We have experienced supply problems with one or more of our suppliers and may again experience supply problems in the future. For example, we saw supply chain disruptions in the second half of 2021 as well as in 2022 and 2023, primarily associated with semiconductor chips used in our batteries and printed circuit boards. However, we recognize that there could be supply shortages for other components used in our products. While we have taken steps to attempt to mitigate the impact of potential supply shortages, the previously experience shortages have had and any future shortage may have a negative impact on our ability to manufacture products (including with respect to the production halt discussed below) as these chips are used across all of our portable oxygen concentrators in our batteries and printed circuit boards.
The inflated costs related to the supply shortage negatively impacted our cost of goods sold throughout 2022 and 2023 associated with these chips, most of these costs increased our prepaid expense and inventory given that these components were either not yet delivered or not yet sold in finished products during the period.
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In addition, we may be deemed to manufacture or contract to manufacture products that contain certain minerals that have been designated as “conflict minerals” under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. As a result, we may be required to perform due diligence to determine the origin of such minerals and disclose and report whether such minerals originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or adjoining countries. The implementation of these requirements could adversely affect the sourcing, availability, and pricing of minerals used in the manufacture of our products. In addition, we have incurred additional costs to comply with the disclosure requirements, including costs related to determining the source of any of the relevant minerals and metals used in our products. If any of these risks materialize, costs could significantly increase and our ability to meet demand for our products could be impacted. If we fail to comply with the applicable regulations, we could be required to pay civil penalties, face criminal prosecution and, in some cases, be prohibited from distributing our products in commerce until the products or component substances are brought into compliance. If we are unable to satisfy commercial demand for our products in a timely manner, our ability to generate revenue would be impaired, market acceptance of our products could be adversely affected, and customers may instead purchase or use alternative products. In addition, we could be forced to secure new or alternative components and subassemblies through a replacement supplier. Finding alternative sources for these components and subassemblies could be difficult in certain cases and may entail a significant amount of time and disruption. In some cases, we would need to change the components or subassemblies if we sourced them from an alternative supplier. This, in turn, could constitute a material modification or require a redesign of our products and, potentially, require additional FDA clearance or approval before we could use any materially modified or redesigned product with new components or subassemblies, thereby causing further costs and delays that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we are unable to continue to enhance our existing products, develop or acquire and market our products that respond to customer needs and preferences and achieve market acceptance, we may experience a decrease in demand for our products and our business could suffer.
We may not be able to compete as effectively with our competitors and ultimately satisfy the needs and preferences of our customers unless we can continue to enhance existing products, acquire companies with new or different products, sell our existing products, and develop new innovative products ourselves. Product development requires significant financial, technological and other resources. While we expended $20.8 million, $21.9 million and $16.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021, respectively, in research and development efforts, we cannot assure that this level of investment will be sufficient to maintain a competitive advantage in product innovation, which could cause our business to suffer.
Product improvements and new product introductions also require significant planning, design, development, patent protection, and testing at the technological, product, and manufacturing process levels and we may not be able to timely develop product improvements or new products or obtain necessary patent protection and regulatory clearances or approvals for such product improvements or new products in a timely manner, or at all. Our competitors’ new products may enter the market before our new products reach the market, be more effective with more features, obtain better market acceptance, or render our products obsolete. Any new products that we develop or acquire may not receive market acceptance or otherwise generate any meaningful sales or profits for us relative to our expectations based on, among other things, existing and anticipated investments in manufacturing capacity and commitments to fund advertising, marketing, promotional programs and research and development. In addition, if we are unable to seek and obtain regulatory approval or adequate coverage and reimbursement for any new products that we develop or introduce, in a timely manner or at all, we may realize lower revenue than expected or even no revenue at all from these products. As a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially harmed.
We may expand through acquisitions of, or investments in, other companies, each of which may divert our management’s attention, result in additional dilution to our stockholders, increase expenses, disrupt our operations, and harm our results of operations.
Our business strategy may, from time-to-time, include acquiring or investing in complementary services, technologies or businesses, such as our acquisition of Physio-Assist in 2023. We do not have an extensive history of acquiring other companies and cannot assure you that we will successfully identify suitable acquisition candidates, integrate or manage disparate technologies, lines of business, personnel and corporate cultures, realize our business strategy or the expected return on our investment, or manage a geographically dispersed company. Any such acquisition or investment could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. We may issue equity securities which could dilute current stockholders’ ownership, incur debt, assume contingent or other liabilities and expend cash in acquisitions, which could negatively impact our financial condition, stockholder equity, and stock price. The acquisition and integration process is complex, expensive and time-consuming, and may cause an interruption of, or loss of momentum in, product development and sales activities and operations of both companies, and we may incur substantial cost and expense, as well as divert the attention of management.
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Acquisitions and other strategic investments involve significant risks and uncertainties, including:
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the potential failure to achieve the expected benefits of the combination or acquisition;
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the potential failure to successfully develop or commercialize the acquired products or technology;
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unanticipated costs and liabilities;
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difficulties in integrating new products, businesses, operations, and technology infrastructure in an efficient and effective manner;
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difficulties in maintaining customer relations;
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the potential loss of key employees of the acquired businesses;
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the diversion of the attention of our senior management from the operation of our daily business;
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the potential adverse effect on our cash position to the extent that we use cash for the purchase price;
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the potential incurrence of interest expense and debt service requirements if we incur debt to pay for an acquisition;
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the potential issuance of securities that would dilute our stockholders’ percentage ownership;
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the potential to incur large and immediate write-offs and restructuring and other related expenses;
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the potential of amortization expenses related to intangible assets;
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the potential failure to achieve anticipated reimbursement classifications for acquired products;
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the potential to become involved in intellectual property litigation related to such acquisitions or strategic investments; and
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the inability to maintain uniform standards, controls, policies, and procedures.
Any acquisition or investment could expose us to unknown liabilities. Moreover, we cannot assure you that we will realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisition or investment. In addition, our inability to successfully operate and integrate newly acquired businesses appropriately, effectively, and in a timely manner could impair our ability to take advantage of future growth opportunities and other advances in technology, as well as on our revenues, gross margins, and expenses.
For example, as part of our ongoing efforts to advance patient preference and maintain our technology leadership position, we acquired New Aera in 2019. We made certain assumptions relating to the New Aera acquisition, which assumptions have proven to be inaccurate, including the failure to realize the expected benefits of the acquisition, failure to realize expected revenue, higher than expected operating costs, and general economic and business conditions that adversely affected the combined company following the acquisition. On December 19, 2022, we determined to dispose of the technology intangible assets previously acquired from New Aera related to the Tidal Assist® Ventilator (TAV®) technology by ceasing development of such assets and abandoning the TAV program (the “Disposal Determination”). We made the Disposal Determination based on our assessment that continued development of the assets would not be economically feasible. The assessment considered many factors, including 1) the lack of compatibility and functionality of the technology intangible asset within our existing product portfolio, 2) the lack of commercial potential of such products that were not approved for ventilation Medicare reimbursement and a negative litigation outcome that occurred subsequent to the approved Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code process, and 3) the substantial additional investment that would be required in order to attempt to achieve any commercial potential with substantial risk that no benefit would ever be achievable.
We depend upon reimbursement from Medicare, private payors, Medicaid and payments from patients for a significant portion of our revenue, and if we fail to manage the complex and lengthy reimbursement process, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
A significant portion of our rental revenue is derived from reimbursement by third-party payors. We accept assignment of insurance benefits from customers and, in a majority of cases, invoice and collect payments directly from Medicare, private payors and Medicaid, as well as direct from patients under co-insurance provisions. For the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, approximately 20.3%, 15.0% and 12.9%, respectively, of our total revenue was derived from Medicare, private payors, Medicaid, and individual patients who directly receive reimbursement from third-party payors and this percentage could increase as a percent of total revenue if we increase net patient additions faster than our sales revenue growth.
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Our financial condition and results of operations may be affected by the healthcare industry’s reimbursement process, which is complex and can involve lengthy delays between the time that a product is delivered to the consumer and the time that the reimbursement amounts are settled. Depending on the payor, we may be required to obtain certain payor-specific documentation from physicians and other healthcare providers before submitting claims for reimbursement. Certain payors have filing deadlines, and they will not pay claims submitted after such time. We are also subject to extensive pre-payment and post-payment audits by governmental and private payors that could result in material delays, refunds of monies received or denials of claims submitted for payment under such third-party payor programs and contracts. We cannot ensure that we will be able to continue to effectively manage the process which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Increases in our operating costs could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Reimbursement rates are established by fee schedules mandated by Medicare, private payors and Medicaid, and are likely to be set, in part, to federal and state government budgetary constraints. As a result, with respect to Medicare and Medicaid related revenue, we may not be able to offset the effects of general inflation on our operating costs through increases in prices for our products, as these inflation adjustments are subject to annual approval outside of our control. In particular, labor and related costs account for a significant portion of our operating costs, and we compete with other healthcare providers to attract and retain qualified or skilled personnel and with various industries for administrative and service employees. As a result, increases in our operating costs including personnel-related costs could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
An economic recession, downturn, period of inflation, or economic uncertainty in our key markets may adversely affect customer and consumer spending as well as demand for our products.
Our results of operations could be adversely affected by general conditions in the global economy and in the global financial markets. Our general business strategy may be adversely affected by any such economic downturn, volatile business environment, higher inflation, bank failures, or continued unpredictable and unstable market conditions. Unfavorable economic conditions may lead customers and consumers to delay or reduce purchases of our products and/or strain our suppliers. Consumer demand for our products may not reach our targets, or may decline, when there is an economic downturn or economic uncertainty in our key markets and our customers could be delayed in making payments for our products. Our sensitivity to economic cycles and any related fluctuation in customer and consumer demand could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We are subject to risks associated with public health threats and epidemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health emergency (PHE).
Public health outbreaks, epidemics, pandemics of contagious or infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, may significantly disrupt our business. Such outbreaks pose the risk that we or our employees, contractors, suppliers, or other partners may be prevented from conducting business activities for an indefinite period of time due to spread of the disease, or due to shutdowns that may be requested or mandated by federal, state and local governmental authorities. Business disruptions could include disruptions or restrictions on our ability to travel, as well as temporary closures of our facilities or the facilities of our contractors, suppliers, and other partners. For example, we previously experienced declines in total demand during portions of the COVID-19 pandemic and related PHE, which we believe were due to these factors and other factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic and related PHE.
In addition, while we and our contract manufacturer were able to keep our manufacturing facilities open during the COVID-19 pandemic and related PHE, there can be no assurance that we would be able to keep such facilities open indefinitely during a future public health emergency.
We do not have long-term supply contracts with many of our third-party suppliers.
We purchase components and subassemblies from third-party suppliers, including some of our single-source suppliers, through purchase orders and do not have long-term supply contracts with many of these third-party suppliers. Many of our third-party suppliers, therefore, are not obligated to perform services or supply products to us for any specific period, in any specific quantity or at any specific price, except as may be provided in a particular purchase order. We do not maintain large volumes of inventory from most of these suppliers. For example, our batteries and motherboards are sourced from a single source supplier, and sub-components of the battery are also sourced from single source suppliers. For additional discussion of potential risks related to our inability to source components of our products, please see the risk factor entitled “We obtain some of the components, subassemblies and completed products included in our products from a single source or a limited group of manufacturers or suppliers, and in some cases those components are available in only limited supplies from limited manufacturers or suppliers, and the partial or complete loss of one or more of these manufacturers or suppliers could cause significant production delays or stoppages, an inability to meet customer demand, substantial loss in revenue, and an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.”
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A significant majority of our rental patients who use our product have health coverage under the Medicare program, and recently enacted and future changes in the reimbursement rates or payment methodologies under Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs have affected and could continue to materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
As a provider of oxygen equipment rentals, we depend heavily on Medicare reimbursement as a result of the higher proportion of elderly persons suffering from chronic long-term respiratory conditions. Medicare Part B, or Supplementary Medical Insurance Benefits, provides coverage to eligible beneficiaries that include items of durable medical equipment for use in the home, such as oxygen equipment and other respiratory devices. There are increasing pressures on Medicare to control healthcare costs and to reduce or limit reimbursement rates for home medical products.
Legislation, including the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, contain provisions that directly impact reimbursement for the durable medical equipment products provided by us:
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The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 significantly reduced reimbursement for inhalation drug therapies beginning in 2005, reduced payment amounts for certain durable medical equipment, including oxygen, beginning in 2005, froze payment amounts for other covered HME items through 2008, established a competitive bidding program for home medical equipment and implemented quality standards and accreditation requirements for durable medical equipment suppliers.
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The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 limited the total number of continuous rental months for which Medicare will pay for oxygen equipment to 36 months, after which time there is generally no additional reimbursement to the supplier (other than for periodic, in-home maintenance and servicing). The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 also provided that title of the equipment would transfer to the beneficiary, which was later repealed by the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. For purposes of the rental cap, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 provided for a new 36-month rental period that began January 1, 2006 for all oxygen equipment. After the 36th continuous month during which payment is made for the oxygen equipment, the supplier is generally required to continue to furnish the equipment during the period of medical need for the remainder of the useful lifetime of the equipment, provided there are no breaks in service due to medical necessity that exceed 60 days. The reasonable useful lifetime for our portable oxygen equipment is 60 months. After 60 months, if the patient requests, and the patient meets Medicare coverage criteria, the rental cycle starts over and a new 36-month rental period begins. There are no limits on the number of 60-month cycles over which a Medicare patient may receive benefits and an oxygen therapy provider may receive reimbursement, so long as such equipment continues to be medically necessary for the patient. We anticipate that the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 oxygen payment rules will continue to negatively affect our net revenue on an ongoing basis, as each month additional customers reach the capped rental period in month thirty-seven, resulting in potentially two or more years without rental income from these customers while we continue to incur customer service and maintenance costs. Our capped patients as a percentage of total patients on service was approximately 13.1% as of December 31, 2023 and 9.2% as of December 31, 2022. The percentage of capped patients may fluctuate over time as new patients come on service, patients come off service before and during the capped rental period, and existing patients enter the capped rental period. We cannot predict the potential impact to rental revenues in future periods associated with patients in the capped rental period.
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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, included, among other things, face-to-face physician encounter requirements for certain durable medical equipment and home health services, and a requirement that by 2016, the competitive bidding process be nationalized or prices in non-competitive bidding areas be adjusted to match competitive bidding prices.
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There were significant U.S. reimbursement and policy changes associated with the COVID-19 PHE that impacted oxygen therapy and other durable medical equipment. The CARES Act allowed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to waive certain Medicare telehealth payment requirements during the COVID-19 PHE declared by HHS on January 31, 2020 to allow beneficiaries in all areas to receive telehealth services, including at their home, starting March 6, 2020. The Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act (H.R. 6074) also granted HHS the authority to waive certain requirements with respect to telehealth services. Under this authority, CMS clarified that HHS would not conduct audits to determine whether there was a prior physician-patient relationship for telehealth claims submitted during the COVID-19 PHE. The CARES Act, passed on March 27, 2020, included the extension of the 50/50 blended rate for HME in rural and non-contiguous, non-competitively bid areas and established a new 75/25 blended rate for all other non-competitively bid areas through the duration of the COVID-19 PHE. The 75/25 blended rate was retroactive to March 6, 2020. The COVID-19 PHE expired on May 11, 2023. The Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act extended the 75/25 blended rates for all other non-competitively bid areas until December 31, 2023.
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In May 2020, Congress eliminated the 2% Medicare sequestration payment reduction that applies to all Medicare providers and suppliers, due to the COVID-19 PHE, and Congress extended it until March 31, 2022. The sequestration payment reduction resumed with a 1% reduction to rates from April 1, 2022 until June 30, 2022, and the full 2% Medicare sequestration resumed on July 1, 2022.
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The CARES Act established a provider relief fund of $100 billion for Medicare providers and suppliers to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 PHE, and as a Medicare supplier we also received funds of $6.2 million in the second quarter of 2020. The Paycheck Protection Program and Heath Care Enhancement Act was also signed into law on April 24, 2020 and provided additional funding of $484 billion to programs enacted under the CARES Act. Of the $484 billion, $75 billion was additional funding for healthcare providers to reimburse healthcare related expenses and lost revenues attributable to COVID-19 PHE, which was in addition to the $100 billion approved in the CARES Act.
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On April 6, 2020, CMS issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) in the Federal Register for policy and regulatory revisions in response to the COVID-19 PHE. This IFR included that for the duration of the COVID-19 PHE, the face-to-face requirements and clinical indications of coverage for home oxygen, among other respiratory products, were waived.
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The Trump administration also issued a number of regulatory waivers to increase the flexibility in durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS) suppliers’ ability to service patients quickly and without the normal requirements. For example, the patient signature for proof of delivery for DMEPOS was waived when signatures could not be collected during the COVID-19 PHE for dates of services within the PHE. In addition, CMS increased Medicare contractors’ ability to waive replacement product requirements, paused the national prior authorization program for certain DMEPOS items, automatically extended expiring accreditations, granted contractors the flexibility to grant appeals extensions, and suspended medical review of claims. Both the IFR and temporary regulatory changes show significant flexibility from CMS to improve access for oxygen and other DMEPOS items during this COVID-19 PHE. These changes were retroactive to early March 2020. In August 2020, CMS resumed medical review of claims and the prior authorization program for certain DMEPOS.
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CMS issued a final rule in December 2021 (CMS-1738-P) to establish payment amounts that were to be effective after the COVID-19 PHE for DMEPOS products and services covered under Medicare.
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CMS established three different fee schedule adjustment methodologies for non-CBAs after the termination of the COVID-19 PHE: (1) for non-contiguous non-CBAs; (2) for contiguous non-CBAs defined as rural areas; and (3) for non-rural non-CBAs within the contiguous United States. Payment methodologies (1) and (2) contemplate utilizing the 50/50 blended rates as a permanent construct, but payment methodology (3) contemplates setting the fee schedule amounts to 100% of the Medicare rates that are based upon (former) competitive bid rates. This will reduce Medicare rates after the PHE is over in the current areas that are considered non-rural but not covered by a former CBA, as those areas are currently receiving a 75/25 blended reimbursement rate.
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In January 2021, CMS announced, for informational purposes only, the payment amounts that would have been effective for the competitive bidding round 2021 as part of its effort to increase transparency into the DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program. As a reminder, the bids for oxygen were based on the HCPCS code E1390, which is for stationary oxygen, and there were 130 regions bid. The simple average of the 2018 payment amounts for these regions for this code was $73.98. The simple average of the payment amounts for these regions for this code was $122.61, or an average increase of 65.7%. If CMS were to have implemented these rate changes, the simple average payment amounts in these regions for POCs (codes E1390 and E1392) would have been $157.60, which is significantly higher than the simple average payment amounts of $110.07 and $121.07 per month being paid as of January 1, 2021 and April 1, 2021 for these regions.
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In September 2021, CMS published a Decision Memo which revised the Home Use of Oxygen national coverage determination and removed the national coverage determination for Home Oxygen Use to Treat Cluster Headaches. This allows the Medicare Administrative Contractors to make coverage determinations regarding the use of home oxygen and oxygen equipment for cluster headaches. CMS also expanded patient access to oxygen and oxygen equipment in the home by allowing oxygen use for acute or short-term needs instead of limiting coverage to chronic hypoxemia, removed the requirements for alternative treatment measures before dispensing of oxygen therapy, and removed the limited list of conditions for which oxygen may be covered to respiratory-related diseases, to allow the physician flexibility to make that determination. In addition, CMS defined exercise more broadly to include functional performance of the patient and allow more flexibility on pulse oximetry readings to account for differences in skin pigmentation. Lastly, CMS reduced provider burden by removing the oxygen certificate of medical necessity requirement. We believe these changes will expand coverage for patients who would benefit from oxygen therapy, reduce administrative burdens, and give more decision-making authority on proper patient care to the physicians. CMS delayed the implementation date for the revised national coverage determination until January 3, 2023.
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On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) became federal law. The ARP, among other things, increased spending without offsets to other federal programs. The Statutory Pay-as-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010 requires deficit neutrality overall in the laws enacted by Congress and imposes automatic spending reductions at the end of the year if such laws increase the deficit when they are added together. Any legislation enacted after February 12, 2010, that affects direct spending and/or revenues is subject to Statutory PAYGO. The Congressional Budget Office previously estimated that a Statutory PAYGO sequester in fiscal year 2022 resulting from the ARP passage would cause a 4% reduction in Medicare spending.
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On December 29, 2022, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (Pub. L. 117-328) was signed into law. Included in this law was a provision deferring for two years, until January 1, 2025, the Statutory PAYGO Medicare payment reductions. This law also extended the DME 75/25 blended rates in non-competitive bidding areas and extended the COVID-19 PHE telehealth waivers until the end of 2024. We cannot currently determine if, or to what extent, our business, results of operations, financial condition or liquidity will ultimately be impacted by mandated sequestration triggers under the PAYGO Act, or if or when the mandated sequestration will occur. Medicare’s service reimbursement programs accounted for 67.7%, 77.0% and 81.9% of rental revenue for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively, and based on total revenue were 13.7%, 11.6% and 10.6% for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.
These legislative provisions have had and may continue to have a material and/or adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has recommended that states review Medicaid reimbursement for durable medical equipment (DME) and supplies. The OIG cites an earlier report estimating that four states (California, Minnesota, New York, and Ohio) could have saved more than $18.1 million on selected DME items if their Medicaid prices were comparable to those under round one of the Medicare competitive bidding program. Since issuing those reports, the OIG identified $12 million in additional savings that the four states could have obtained on the selected items by using pricing similar to the Medicare round two competitive bidding and national mail-order programs. In light of varying Medicaid provider rates for DME and the potential for lower spending, the OIG recommends that CMS (1) seek legislative authority to limit state Medicaid DME reimbursement rates to Medicare program rates, and (2) encourage further reduction of Medicaid reimbursement rates through competitive bidding or manufacturer rebates (the OIG did not determine the cost of implementing a rebate or competitive bidding program in each state). This was effective beginning January 1, 2018.
Due to budgetary shortfalls, many states are considering, or have enacted, cuts to their Medicaid programs. In addition, many private payors reimburse at a percentage of the Medicare rates. Medicare, Medicaid and private payor reimbursement rate cuts have included, or may include elimination or reduction of coverage for our products, amounts eligible for payment under co-insurance arrangements, or payment rates for covered items. Continued state budgetary pressures could lead to further reductions in funding for the reimbursement for our products which, in turn, would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The competitive bidding process or other reimbursement policy changes under Medicare or other third-party payors could negatively affect our business and financial condition.
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 required the Secretary of HHS to establish and implement programs under which competitive acquisition areas are established throughout the United States for purposes of awarding contracts for the furnishing of competitively priced items of durable medical equipment, including oxygen equipment.
We rely significantly on reimbursement from Medicare and private payors, including Medicare Advantage plans, Medicaid and patients for our rental revenue. For the year ended December 31, 2023, approximately 67.7% of our rental revenue was derived from Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service reimbursement programs.
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The U.S. list price for our stationary oxygen rentals (HCPCS E1390) is $260 per month and the U.S. list price for our oxygen generating portable equipment (OGPE) rentals (HCPCS E1392) is $70 per month. The average Medicare reimbursement rates in former competitive bidding areas (CBAs) in the prior six years are outlined in the table below for E1390 and E1392, which are the two primary codes that we bill to Medicare and other payors for our oxygen product rentals. These rates are typically updated annually each January as they are subject to Consumer Price Index (CPI) and sequestration adjustments but can also be subject to adjustments during the year due to legislative rulings. Competitive bidding contracts were scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2021; however, on October 27, 2020, CMS announced that competitive bidding contracts would not be awarded for most product categories, including oxygen, due to the payment amounts not achieving the expected savings and the current COVID-19 pandemic and related PHE. Effective April 1, 2021, rates were adjusted to remove a percentage reduction that was put in place to meet the budget neutrality requirement previously mandated by section 1834(a)(9)(D)(ii) of the Social Security Act. See the table below for average Medicare rates in former CBAs, using a simple average of rates in each CBA.
Average Medicare reimbursement rates in former CBAs E1390 E1392
CMS also issued a final rule in December 2021 (CMS-1738-P) to establish payment methodologies to be effective after the COVID-19 PHE for DMEPOS products and services covered under Medicare.
CMS established three different fee schedule adjustment methodologies for non-CBAs after the termination of the COVID-19 PHE: (1) for non-contiguous non-CBAs; (2) for contiguous non-CBAs defined as rural areas; and (3) for non-rural non-CBAs within the contiguous United States. The final payment methodology sets the fee schedule amounts to 100% of the Medicare rates in all non-rural areas. This will reduce Medicare rates after the PHE is over in the current areas that are considered non-rural but not covered by a former CBA, as those areas are currently receiving a 75/25 blended reimbursement rate.
In January 2021, CMS announced what would have been the payment amounts for the competitive bidding round 2021. As a reminder, the bids for oxygen were based on the HCPCS code E1390, which is for stationary oxygen, and there were 130 regions bid. The simple average of the 2018 single payment amounts for these regions for this code was $73.98. The simple average of the payment amounts for these regions for this code was $122.61, or an average increase of 65.7%. If CMS were to have implemented these rate changes, the average payment amounts in these regions for POCS (codes E1390 and E1392) would have been $157.60, which is significantly higher than the $110.07 per month being paid as of January 1, 2021.
Medicare payment rates are based upon whether the beneficiary resides in a (former) CBA, or in a rural or non-rural non-CBA, or in non-contiguous states. Non-CBA payment rates are based on regional pricing, that are derived from former competitive bidding payment rates. In rural areas and non-contiguous states, payment rates are based on a higher 50-50 blended rate, to account for higher servicing costs in those areas. We estimate that approximately 18% of our patients are eligible to receive the higher reimbursement rates based on the geographic locations of our current patient population. Effective March 1, 2021, CMS announced that the rates as of January 1, 2021 were incorrectly calculated, and retroactively adjusted the rates, which are reflected in the table below. The Medicare rates announced previously were a simple average of $136.24 for HCPCS code E1390 and $44.69 for HCPCS code E1392, which were increased to $136.84 and $44.99, respectively. Effective April 1, 2021, rates were adjusted to remove a percentage reduction that was put in place to meet the budget neutrality requirement previously mandated by section 1834(a)(9)(D)(ii) of the Social Security Act. See the table below for average Medicare rates in rural areas, using a simple average of rates in each state.
Average Medicare reimbursement rates in rural areas E1390 E1392
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Rates in non-former CBAs that are not defined as rural are set based on the rates in former CBAs. See the table below for average Medicare rates in these non-former CBAs, non-rural areas, using a simple average of rates in each state. These rates are typically updated annually each January as they are subject to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and sequestration adjustments but are also subject to adjustments during the year due to legislative rulings. Effective April 1, 2021, rates were adjusted to remove a percentage reduction that was put in place to meet the budget neutrality requirement previously mandated by section 1834(a)(9)(D)(ii) of the Social Security Act. Note that the 2021 rates listed below include CARES Act increased rates due to the COVID-19 PHE. In December 2022, Congress' Consolidated Appropriations Act extended the higher 75/25 blended rates in non-CBAs until December 31, 2023. As of January 1, 2024, the rates in former non-CBAs were reduced to the former CBA rates listed in the table above. Rates in rural areas continue to be based upon a 50/50 blended rates, consistent with CMS' December 2021 final rule described above.
CMS is required to conduct future rounds of competitive bidding, which could reduce reimbursement rates, negatively impact the premium for POCs over other oxygen modalities, or limit beneficiary access to our technologies. Cumulatively in previous rounds of competitive bidding, we were offered contracts for a substantial majority of the CBAs and product categories for which we submitted bids. Effective January 1, 2017, we believe we had access to over 90% of the Medicare oxygen therapy market based on our analysis of the 103 CBAs that we won out of the 130 total CBAs. These 130 CBAs represented approximately 36% of the Medicare market with the remaining approximately 64% of the market not subject to competitive bidding. As of January 1, 2019, we can choose to accept Medicare oxygen patients throughout the United States. As of July 2018, we currently operate in all 50 states in the U.S. We did not sell or rent to patients in Hawaii due to the licensure requirements from inception to June 2018.
We cannot guarantee that we will be offered contracts in subsequent rounds of competitive bidding. In all five rounds of competitive bidding in which we have participated, we have gained access to certain CBAs and been excluded from other CBAs.
Medicare revenue, including patient co-insurance and deductible obligations, represented 13.7% of our total revenue in the year ended December 31, 2023 and 15.0% in the year ended December 31, 2022.
Medicare reimbursement for oxygen rental equipment is limited to a maximum of 36 months within a 60-month service period, and the equipment remains the property of the home oxygen supplier. The supplier that billed Medicare for the 36th month of service continues to be responsible for the patient’s oxygen therapy needs for months 37 through 60, and there is generally no additional reimbursement for oxygen generating portable equipment for these later months. CMS does not separately reimburse suppliers for oxygen tubing, cannulas and supplies that may be required for the patient. The supplier is required to keep the equipment provided in working order and in some cases, CMS will reimburse for repair costs. At the end of the five-year useful life of the equipment, the patient may request replacement equipment and, if he or she can be re-qualified for the Medicare benefit, a new maximum 36-month payment cycle out of the next 60 months of service would begin. The supplier may not arbitrarily issue new equipment. We have analyzed the potential impact to revenue associated with patients in the capped rental period and have deferred $0 associated with the capped rental period as of December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022. Our capped patients as a percentage of total patients on service was approximately 13.1% as of December 31, 2023 and 9.2% as of December 31, 2022. The percentage of capped patients may fluctuate over time as new patients come on service, patients come off service before and during the capped rental period, and existing patients enter the capped rental period.
Our obligations to service Medicare patients over the rental period include supplying working equipment that meets each patient’s oxygen needs pursuant to his/her doctor’s prescription and supplying all disposables required for the patient to operate the equipment, including cannulas, filters, replacement batteries, carts and carry bags, as needed. If the equipment malfunctions, we must repair or replace the equipment. We determine what equipment the patient receives, and we can deploy used assets in working order as long as the prescription requirements are met. We must also procure a renewal from the patient’s doctor to confirm the patient’s need for oxygen therapy one year after the patient first receives oxygen therapy and one year after each new 36-month reimbursement period begins. The patient can choose to receive oxygen supplies and services from another supplier at any time, but the supplier may only transition the patient to another supplier in certain circumstances.
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Although we continue to monitor developments regarding the implementation of the competitive bidding program, we cannot predict the outcome of the competitive bidding program on our business when fully implemented, nor the Medicare reimbursement rates that will be in effect in future years for the items subject to competitive bidding, including our products. We expect that the stationary oxygen and non-delivery ambulatory oxygen reimbursement rates will continue to fluctuate, and a large negative payment adjustment would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Consolidation in the healthcare industry could have an adverse effect on our revenues and results of operations.
The home medical equipment market is highly competitive, and our products face significant competition from other well-established manufacturers. Numerous initiatives and reforms instituted by legislators, regulators and third-party payors to reduce home medical equipment costs have caused pricing pressures which have resulted in a consolidation trend in the home medical equipment industry as well as among our customers, including home healthcare providers. In the past, some of our competitors, which may include distributors, have been lowering the purchase prices of their products in an effort to attract customers. This in turn has resulted in greater pricing pressures, including pressure to offer customers more competitive pricing terms, exclusion of products from or unfavorable position on provider formularies and the exclusion of certain suppliers from important market segments as group purchasing organizations, independent delivery networks and large single accounts continue to consolidate purchasing decisions for some of our customers. Further consolidation could result in a loss of customers, increased collectability risks, or increased competitive pricing pressures.
Healthcare reform measures may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Healthcare reform measures may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
In the United States, the legislative landscape, particularly as it relates to healthcare regulation and reimbursement coverage, continues to evolve. In March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed, which has substantially changed healthcare financing by both governmental and private insurers, and significantly impacts the U.S. medical device industry.
In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was enacted. On August 2, 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011 created, among other things, measures for spending reductions by Congress. A Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, tasked with recommending a targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for the years 2013 through 2021, was unable to reach required goals, thereby triggering the legislation’s automatic sequestration reduction to several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions of Medicare reimbursements to providers up to 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect on April 1, 2013, and will remain in effect through 2030 unless additional Congressional action is taken. For example, a provision in the CARES Act and subsequent federal laws had paused the 2% Medicare sequestration reduction for claims dated from May 1, 2020 through March 31, 2022. Starting April 1, 2022, and through June 30, 2022, there was a 1% sequestration reduction, and the full 2% sequestration reduction resumed on July 1, 2022. We expect that additional state and federal healthcare policy measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for our products or additional pricing pressures.
In addition to the legislative changes discussed above, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires healthcare providers to voluntarily report and return an identified overpayment within 60 days after identifying the overpayment. Failure to repay the overpayment within 60 days will result in the claim being considered a “false claim” and the healthcare provider will be subject to False Claims Act liability.
State legislative bodies also have the right to enact legislation that would impact requirements of home medical equipment providers, including oxygen therapy providers. We regularly monitor developments in state requirements applicable to our business and their impact on our operations, products and access to patients. Some states have already enacted legislation that regulate in-state facilities. To the extent such legislation is enacted, it could result in increased administrative costs or otherwise exclude us from doing business in a particular state, which would adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We face uncertainties that might result from modification or repeal of any of the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including as a result of current and future executive orders, legislative actions and judicial decisions. The impact of those changes on us and potential effect on the durable medical equipment industry as a whole is currently unknown. But any changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are likely to have an impact on our results of operations and may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. We cannot predict what other healthcare programs and regulations will ultimately be implemented at the federal or state level or the effect of any future legislation or regulation in the United States may have on our business.
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If our manufacturing facilities become unavailable or inoperable, we could be unable to continue manufacturing our products and, as a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected until we are able to secure a new facility.
We assemble our products at our facility in Plano, Texas and through our contract manufacturer in the Czech Republic. No other manufacturing facilities are currently available to us, particularly facilities of the size and scope of our Texas facility. Our facilities and the equipment we use to manufacture our products would be costly to replace and could require substantial lead time to procure, repair or replace. Our facilities are in areas that have and may in the future be harmed or rendered inoperable by natural or man-made disasters, including, but not limited to, pandemic and related facility shutdowns, fire, flood, earthquakes and power outages, which may render it difficult or impossible for us to manufacture our products for some period of time.
If any of our facilities become unavailable to us, we cannot provide assurances that we will be able to secure and equip a new manufacturing facility on acceptable terms in a timely manner. The inability to manufacture our products, combined with delays in replacing parts inventory and manufacturing supplies and equipment, may result in the loss of customers and/or harm our reputation, and we may be unable to reestablish relationships with those customers in the future. Although we have insurance coverage for certain types of disasters and business interruptions which may help us recover some of the costs of damage to our property, costs of recovery and lost income from the disruption of our business, insurance coverage of certain perils may be limited or unavailable at cost effective rates and may therefore not be sufficient to cover any or all of our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If our manufacturing capabilities are impaired, we could not be able to manufacture, store, and ship our products in sufficient quantity or a cost effective or timely manner, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely upon a third-party contract manufacturer for certain manufacturing operations and our business and results of operations may be adversely affected by risks associated with their business, financial condition and the geography in which they operate.
We utilize a third-party contract manufacturer located in the Czech Republic for production of a portion of our Inogen One G3 and Inogen One G5 concentrators and for repair services for these products. Since 2018, our contract manufacturer has produced the vast majority of the concentrators required to support our European demand. There are a number of risks associated with our dependence on a contract manufacturer, including:
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reduced control over delivery schedules and planning;
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reliance on the quality assurance procedures of a third party;
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risks associated with our contract manufacturer failing to manufacture our products according to our specifications, quality regulations, including the FDA’s Quality System regulations, or otherwise manufacturing products that we or regulatory authorities deem to be unsuitable for commercial use;
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risks associated with our contract manufacturer’s ability to successfully undergo FDA and other regulatory authority quality inspections;
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potential uncertainty regarding manufacturing yields and costs;
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availability of manufacturing capability and capacity, particularly during periods of high demand;
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risks and uncertainties associated with the location or country where our products are manufactured, including potential manufacturing disruptions caused by social, geopolitical or environmental factors;
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changes in U.S. law or policy governing foreign trade, manufacturing, development and investment in the countries where we manufacture our products, including the World Trade Organization Information Technology Agreement or other free trade agreements;
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delays in delivery by suppliers due to customs clearing delays, shipping delays, scarcity of raw materials and changes in demand from us or their other customers;
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limited warranties provided to us; and
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potential misappropriation of our intellectual property.
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These and other risks could impair our ability to fulfill orders, harm our sales and impact our reputation with customers. If our contract manufacturer is unable or unwilling to manufacture our products or components of our products, or if our contract manufacturer discontinues operations, we may be required to identify and qualify alternative manufacturers, which could cause us to be unable to meet our supply requirements to our customers and result in the breach of our customer agreements. The process of qualifying a new contract manufacturer and commencing volume production is expensive and time-consuming, and if we are required to change or qualify a new contract manufacturer, we would likely lose sales revenue and damage our existing customer relationships.
Failure to maintain or obtain new private payor contracts and future reductions in reimbursement rates from private payors could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
A portion of our rental revenue is derived from private payors. Based on our patient population, we estimate approximately 41% of potential customers have non-Medicare insurance coverage (including Medicare Advantage plans). Failing to maintain and obtain private payor contracts from private insurance companies and employers and secure in-network provider status could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, private payors are under pressure to increase profitability and reduce costs. In response, certain private payors are limiting coverage or reducing reimbursement rates for the products we provide. We believe that private payor reimbursement levels will generally be reset in accordance with the Medicare reimbursement amounts determined by competitive bidding. We cannot predict the extent to which reimbursement for our products will be affected by competitive bidding or by initiatives to reduce costs for private payors. Failure to maintain or obtain new private payor contracts or the unavailability of third-party coverage or inadequacy of reimbursement for our products would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we are unable to manage our anticipated growth effectively, our business could be harmed.
We have previously experienced periods of rapid growth in short periods of time. These periods of rapid growth of our business have placed a significant strain on our managerial and operational resources and systems. For example, as our business has grown, we have seen the cost per generated lead trend higher than historical averages. To continue to grow our business, we must attract and retain capable personnel and manage and train them effectively, particularly related to sales representatives and supporting sales personnel. We must also upgrade our internal business processes and capabilities to create the scalability that a growing business demands.
While we believe we are making the necessary changes to improve sales management infrastructure to support sales representative training and onboarding, it will take more time to evaluate whether these changes are effective in the long term, and to the extent they are not effective, it may negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations.
We are exposed to the credit and non-payment risk of our HME providers, distributors, private label partners and resellers, especially during times of economic uncertainty and tight credit markets, which could result in material losses.
We sell our products to certain HME providers, distributors, private label partner and resellers on unsecured credit, with terms that vary depending upon the customer’s credit history, solvency, cash flow, credit limits and sales history, as well as prevailing terms with similarly situated customers and whether sufficient credit insurance can be obtained. In particular, two single customers each represented more than 10% of our net accounts receivable balance with accounts receivable balances of $8.6 million and $5.0 million, respectively, as of December 31, 2023, and $22.6 million and $9.9 million, respectively, as of December 31, 2022. Challenging economic conditions, including those associated with the recent recessionary effects and inflationary pressure, may impair the ability of our customers to pay for products they have purchased, and as a result, our reserve for doubtful accounts could increase and, even if increased, may turn out to be insufficient. Moreover, even in cases where we have insolvency risk insurance to protect against a customer’s bankruptcy, insolvency or liquidation, this insurance typically contains a significant deductible and co-payment obligation and does not cover all instances of non-payment. Our exposure to credit risks of our business partners may increase if our business partners and their end customers are adversely affected by potential worsening global economic conditions or the recent disruptions to, and volatility in, the credit and financial markets in the United States and worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic and related PHE, the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the war in Ukraine, potential uncertainty related to Taiwan and its relationship with China or other events affecting the United States or global economy. One or more of these business partners could delay payments or default on credit extended to them, either of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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We generate a substantial portion of our revenue internationally and are subject to various risks relating to such international activities, which could adversely affect our operating results. In addition, any disruption or delay in the shipping of our products, whether domestically or internationally, may have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
During the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, approximately 28.3%, 26.8% and 22.2%, respectively, of our total revenue was generated from customers located outside of the United States. We believe that a significant percentage of our future revenue will continue to come from international sources as we expand our international operations and develop opportunities in other countries. Engaging in international business inherently involves a number of difficulties and risks, including:
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required compliance with anti-bribery laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and U.K. Bribery Act, data privacy and data protection regulations, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), labor laws, and anti-competition regulations;
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export or import delays and restrictions;
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obtaining and maintaining regulatory clearances, approvals and certifications;
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laws and business practices favoring local companies;
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difficulties in enforcing agreements and collecting receivables through certain foreign legal systems;
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unstable economic, political, and regulatory conditions, including as a result of recessionary effects or inflationary pressures;
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supply chain complexities;
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fluctuations in currency exchange rates;
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fluctuations in demand due to country-specific tenders and tender uncertainty and capital expenditure constraints;
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potentially adverse tax consequences, tariffs, customs charges, bureaucratic requirements, and other trade barriers;
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any other government actions, by the United States, China or other countries, that impose barriers or restrictions that would impact our ability to sell or ship products to customers; and
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difficulties protecting or procuring intellectual property rights.
If one or more of these risks occurs, it could require us to dedicate significant resources to remedy, and if we are unsuccessful in finding a solution, our financial condition and results of operations will suffer.
A portion of our international product sales are currently denominated in U.S. dollars and fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to foreign currencies could decrease demand for our products and adversely impact our financial performance. For example, if the value of the U.S. dollar increases relative to foreign currencies, our products could become more costly to the international consumer and therefore less competitive in international markets. Our results of operations and cash flows are, therefore, subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. The volatility of exchange rates depends on many factors that we cannot forecast with reliable accuracy. We have experienced and will continue to experience fluctuations in our net income or loss as a result of transaction gains or losses related to revaluing certain current asset and current liability balances that are denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of the entities in which they are recorded.
For example, for the year ended December 31, 2023, we experienced a net foreign currency gain of $0.2 million, and for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we experienced net foreign currency losses of $0.8 million and $0.7 million, respectively. Fluctuations in currency exchange rates could have an adverse impact on our financial results in the future. While we have a hedging program for Euros that attempts to manage currency exchange rate risks to an acceptable level based on management's judgment of the appropriate trade-off between risk, opportunity, and cost, this hedging program does not completely eliminate the effects of currency exchange rate fluctuations. In addition, currency hedging may result in a reduction or increase in revenue should the currency strengthen or decline during the contract period. A discussion of the hedging program is contained in Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023. Additional information on our hedging arrangements is also contained in Note 3 – Fair value measurements and Item 3 – Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk in the notes to our consolidated financial statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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We rely on shipping providers to deliver products to our customers globally. Labor, tariff, or World Trade Organization-related disputes, piracy, physical damage to shipping facilities or equipment caused by severe weather or terrorist incidents, congestion at shipping facilities, inadequate equipment to load, dock, and offload our products, energy-related tie-ups, or other factors could disrupt or delay shipping or offloading of our products domestically and internationally. Such disruptions or delays may have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Failure to comply with anti-bribery, and anti-corruption, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or the FCPA, and similar laws associated with our activities outside of the United States and anti-money-laundering laws could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.
We are subject to the FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, the United Kingdom Bribery Act of 2010 and possibly other anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in the more than sixty-two countries around the world where we have conducted activities and have sold our products. We face significant risks and liability if we fail to comply with the FCPA and other anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws that prohibit companies and their employees, agents, representatives, business partners, and third-party intermediaries, such as distributors or resellers, from authorizing, offering or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to recipients in the public or private sector.
We leverage various third parties to sell our products and conduct our business abroad. We, our employees, agents, representatives, business partners, and third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities (such as in the context of obtaining government approvals, registrations, or licenses) and may be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of these employees, agents, representatives, business partners and third-party intermediaries, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. In many foreign countries, particularly in countries with developing economies, it may be a local custom that businesses engage in practices that are prohibited by the FCPA or other applicable laws and regulations. We cannot assure you that all of our employees, agents, representatives, business partners or third-party intermediaries will not take actions in violation of our policies and applicable law, for which we have to defend ourselves and may be ultimately held responsible.
These laws also require that we keep accurate books and records and maintain internal controls and compliance procedures designed to prevent any such actions. While we have policies and procedures to address compliance with such laws, and while we provide training to all employees, including management, to ensure compliance with the FCPA and other applicable anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws, we cannot assure you that none of our employees, agents, representatives, business partners or third-party intermediaries will take actions in violation of our policies and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible.
Any violation of the FCPA, other applicable anti-bribery, anti-corruption laws, and anti-money laundering laws could result in whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil sanctions, settlements, prosecutions, enforcement action, fines, damages, loss of export privileges and suspension or debarment from government contracts, which could have a material and adverse effect on our reputation, business, operating results and prospects. In addition, responding to any allegation, enforcement action or related investigation may result in a materially significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees.
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If we fail to comply with U.S. export control and economic sanctions or fail to expand and maintain an effective sales force or successfully develop our international distribution network, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.
We currently derive the majority of our revenue from rentals or sales generated from our own direct sales force. Failure to maintain or expand our direct sales force could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, we use international distributors to augment our sales efforts, certain of which are exclusive distributors in certain foreign countries. We cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully retain or develop our relationships with third-party distributors internationally. In addition, we are subject to United States export control and economic sanctions laws relating to the sale of our products, the violation of which could result in substantial penalties being imposed against us. In particular, we have secured annual export licenses from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to sell our products to a distributor and hospital and clinic end-users in Iran. The use of this license requires us to observe strict conditions with respect to products sold, end-user limitations and payment requirements. Although we believe we have maintained compliance with license requirements, there can be no assurance that the license will not be revoked, be renewed in the future or that we will remain in compliance. More broadly, if we fail to comply with export control laws or successfully develop our relationship with international distributors, our sales could fail to grow or could decline, and our ability to grow our business could be adversely affected. Distributors that are in the business of selling other medical products may not devote a sufficient level of resources and support required to generate awareness of our products and grow or maintain product sales. If our distributors are unwilling or unable to market and sell our products, or if they do not perform to our expectations, we could experience delayed or reduced market acceptance and sales of our products resulting in adverse results of operations.
We may be subject to substantial warranty or product liability claims or other litigation in the ordinary course of business that may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As manufacturers of medical devices, we may be subject to substantial warranty or product liability claims or other litigation in the ordinary course of business that may require us to make significant expenditures to defend these claims or pay damage awards. For example, our Inogen One systems contain lithium ion batteries, which, under certain circumstances, can be a fire hazard. We, as well as our key suppliers, maintain product liability insurance, but this insurance is limited in amount and subject to significant deductibles. There is no guarantee that insurance will be available or adequate to protect against all claims. Our insurance policies are subject to annual renewal, and we may not be able to obtain liability or product insurance in the future on acceptable terms or at all. In addition, our insurance premiums could be subject to increases in the future, which may be material. If the coverage limits are inadequate to cover our liabilities or our insurance costs continue to increase as a result of warranty or product liability claims or other litigation, then our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.
We may also be subject to other types of claims arising from our normal business activities. These may include claims, suits, and proceedings involving labor and employment, wage and hour, commercial, alleged securities laws violations or other investor claims, patent defense and other matters. The outcome of any litigation, regardless of its merits, is inherently uncertain. Any claims and lawsuits, and the disposition of such claims and lawsuits, could be time-consuming and expensive to resolve, divert management attention and resources, and lead to attempts on the part of other parties to pursue similar claims. Any adverse determination related to litigation could require us to change our technology or our business practices, pay monetary damages or enter into royalty or licensing arrangements, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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We depend on the services of our senior executives and other key technical personnel, the loss of whom could negatively affect our business.
Our success depends upon the skills, experience, and efforts of our senior executives and other key technical personnel, including certain members of our engineering, accounting, and compliance staff as well as our sales and marketing personnel.
We have experienced, and may continue to experience, turn-over in our senior executives and other key technical personnel. If experienced employees leave, we could experience inefficiencies or a lack of business continuity due to loss of historical knowledge and a lack of familiarity of the new employees with business processes, operating requirements, policies and procedures. If we are not able to find a qualified permanent replacement for these positions, it could have a material adverse effect on our ability to effectively pursue our business strategy. Executive leadership and key technical personnel transitions can be difficult to manage and could cause disruption to our business. It is important to our success that these key employees quickly adapt to and excel in their new roles. If they are unable to do so, our business and financial results could be materially adversely affected. In addition, much of our corporate expertise is concentrated in relatively few employees, the loss of which for any reason could negatively affect our business. Competition for our highly skilled employees is intense and we cannot prevent the resignation of any employee. We may need to increase employee wages and benefits in order to attract and retain the personnel necessary to achieve our goals, and our business, operations, and financial results may suffer if we are unable to do so. In addition, the value to employees of equity awards that vest over time may be significantly affected by decreases in our stock price that are beyond our control and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies. We may face challenges in retaining and recruiting such individuals due to sustained declines in our stock price that could reduce the retention value of equity awards. We do not maintain “key man” life insurance on any of our senior executives. None of our senior executive team is bound by written employment contracts to remain with us for a specified period. In addition, we have not entered into non-compete agreements with members of our executive management team. The loss of any member of our executive management team could harm our ability to implement our business strategy and respond to the market conditions in which we operate.
We and our vendors and service providers rely on information technology networks and systems, and if we are unable to protect against service interruptions, data corruption, cybersecurity risks, data security incidents and/or network security breaches, our operations could be disrupted, and our business could be negatively affected.
We rely on information technology networks and systems, certain of which are operated by third parties on which we rely, to process, transmit and store electronic, customer, operational, compliance, and financial information; to coordinate and otherwise operate our business; and to communicate within our company and with customers, suppliers, partners and other third parties. These information technology networks and systems may be susceptible to damage, disruptions or shutdowns, hardware or software failures, power outages, computer viruses, ransomware, and other malware, cybersecurity risks, data security incidents, telecommunication failures, user errors or catastrophic events. Like other companies, we have experienced data security incidents before.
We have incurred remedial, legal and other costs in connection with this incident. We have insurance coverage in place for certain potential liabilities and costs relating to service interruptions, data corruption, cybersecurity risks, data security incidents and/or network security breaches, but this insurance is limited in amount, subject to a deductible, and may not be adequate to cover us for all costs arising from these incidents.
If our information technology networks and systems or those provided by our third-party service providers and vendors suffer unauthorized access, severe damage, disruption or shutdown, and our business does not effectively identify or resolve the issues in a timely manner, our operations could be disrupted, we could be subject to regulatory and consumer lawsuits and other proceedings and our business could be negatively affected. In addition, cybersecurity risks and data security incidents could lead to potential unauthorized access to or acquisition of confidential information (including personally identifiable information and protected health information), and data loss, corruption, unavailability, or other unauthorized processing. There is no assurance that we will not experience service interruptions, security breaches, cybersecurity risks and data security incidents, or other information technology failures, whether suffered by us or third parties on which we rely, in the future.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related PHE, we allowed an increased number of employees to work remotely, and we continue to do so and expect that this hybrid model of work will continue. As a result, we may have increased cybersecurity or data security risks, due to increased use of home wi-fi networks and virtual private networks, as well as increased disbursement of physical machines. While we implement IT controls to reduce the risk of a cybersecurity and data security breach, there is no guarantee that these measures will be adequate to safeguard all systems with an increased number of employees working remotely.
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The methods used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service or sabotage systems are constantly evolving and may be difficult to anticipate or to detect for long periods of time. As a result of these types of risks and attacks, we have implemented and periodically review and update systems, processes, and procedures to protect against unauthorized access to or use of data and to prevent data loss. For example, we have increased the security of our systems by requiring all email users to change their passwords following our recent data security incident and sooner than they would have otherwise been required to. We also implemented multi-factor authentication for remote email access and have taken additional steps to further limit access to our systems. However, the ever-evolving threats mean we and our third-party service providers and vendors must continually evaluate and adapt our respective systems and processes and overall security environment. There is no guarantee that these measures will be adequate to safeguard against all data security breaches, system compromises or misuses of data.
The compromise of our technology systems resulting in the loss, disclosure, misappropriation of, or access to, customers’, employees’ or business partners’ information or failure to comply with regulatory or contractual obligations with respect to such information, or the perception that any of these has occurred, could result in legal claims and proceedings, initiated by private parties, investigations or other proceedings by regulatory authorities, and liability or regulatory penalties, disruption to our operations and damage to our reputation, any or all of which could adversely affect our business. The costs to remediate breaches and similar system compromises that do occur could adversely affect our results of operations.
Any new laws, regulations, other legal obligations or industry standards, or any changed interpretation of existing laws, regulations or other standards may require us to incur additional costs and restrict our business operations. For example, many jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring companies to notify individuals of data security breaches involving certain types of personal data. These mandatory disclosures regarding a security breach could result in negative publicity to us, which may cause our customers to lose confidence in the effectiveness of our data security measures which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Increasing data privacy and data protection regulations could impact our business and expose us to increased liability.
We must comply with increasingly complex and rigorous regulatory standards enacted to protect business and personal data in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. For example, the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which became effective on May 25, 2018. The GDPR imposes additional obligations on companies regarding the processing of personal data and provides certain individual privacy rights to natural persons whose data is stored. Compliance with existing, proposed and recently enacted laws (including implementation of the privacy and process enhancements called for under the GDPR) and regulations can be costly and any failure to comply with these regulatory standards could subject us to legal and reputational risks. In addition, we are required under the GDPR to respond to customers' Subject Access Reports (SARs) within a certain time period, which entails determining what personal data is being processed, the purpose of any such data processing, to whom such personal data has been disclosed and whether personal data is being disclosed for the purpose of making automated decisions relating to that customer. We may dedicate significant resources to responding to our customers' SARs, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Misuse of or failure to secure or properly process personal information could also result in violation of data privacy laws and regulations, and any such event, or the perception it has occurred, may result in claims and litigation by private parties, investigations and other proceedings against us by governmental entities or others, damage to our reputation and credibility and could have a negative impact on revenues and profits. As the regulatory environment related to information security, data collection and use, and privacy and data protection becomes increasingly rigorous, with new and constantly changing requirements applicable to our business, compliance with those requirements could continue to result in significant costs.
Following the GDPR, a number of states in the U.S. have introduced, and in certain cases enacted, privacy legislation imposing operational requirements on U.S. companies similar to the requirements reflected in the GDPR. For example, California has passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which went into effect on January 1, 2020, and among other things, requires new disclosures to California consumers and affords such consumers new abilities to opt out of certain sales of personal information. The CCPA provides civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. In addition, California voters recently passed the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which modified the CCPA significantly as of January 1, 2023, potentially resulting in further uncertainty and requiring us to incur additional costs and expenses in an effort to comply. It is possible that these laws and regulations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our practices. If so, this could result in government-imposed fines or orders requiring that we change our practices, which could adversely affect our business. Aspects of these laws, and their interpretation and enforcement, remain uncertain. Their effects potentially are far-reaching and may restrict our ability to use personal information in connection with our business operations, require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and incur substantial compliance-related costs and expenses. Congress also is debating federal privacy legislation, which if passed, may restrict our business operations and require us to incur additional costs for compliance.
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Any new laws, regulations, other legal obligations or industry standards, or any changed interpretation of existing laws, regulations or other standards may require us to incur additional costs and restrict our business operations.
Our financial condition and results of operations may vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter due to a number of factors, which may lead to volatility in our stock price.
Our quarterly revenue and results of operations have varied in the past and may continue to vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter. This variability may lead to volatility in our stock price as research analysts and investors respond to these quarterly fluctuations. These fluctuations are due to numerous factors, including: fluctuations in consumer demand for our products; seasonal cycles in consumer spending; HME providers’ ability to adopt and finance POC purchases and restructure their businesses to remove delivery expenses; our ability to design, manufacture and deliver products to our consumers in a timely and cost-effective manner; quality control problems in our manufacturing operations; our ability to timely obtain adequate quantities of the components used in our products; new product introductions and enhancements by us and our competitors; unanticipated increases in costs or expenses; declines in sales personnel productivity; increased marketing cost per generated lead; unanticipated regulatory reimbursement changes that could result in positive or negative impacts to our earnings; changes or updates to generally accepted accounting principles; additional legal costs associated with pending legal matters; and fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.
The foregoing factors are difficult to forecast, and these, as well as other factors, could materially and adversely affect our quarterly and annual results of operations. We have experienced significant revenue growth in the past, but we may not achieve similar growth rates, profit margins and/or net income (loss) in future periods.
You should not rely on our operating results for any prior quarterly or annual period as an indication of our future operating performance. If we are unable to maintain adequate revenue growth and cost control, our operating results could suffer, and our stock price could decline, primarily because a significant amount of our expenses are fixed and would take additional time to reduce. Any failure to adjust spending quickly enough to compensate for a revenue shortfall could magnify the adverse impact of such revenue shortfall on our results of operations. Our results of operations may not meet the expectations of research analysts or investors, in which case the price of our common stock could decrease significantly.
If the market opportunities for our products are smaller than we believe they are, our revenues may be adversely affected, and our business may suffer.
Our projections regarding (i) the size of the oxygen therapy market, both in the United States and internationally, (ii) the size and percentage of the long-term oxygen therapy market that is subject to competitive bidding in the United States, (iii) the number of oxygen therapy patients, (iv) the number of patients requiring ambulatory and stationary oxygen, (v) the number of patients who rely on the delivery model, (vi) the percentage of the long-term oxygen therapy market serviced by Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and other third party-payors, (vii) the size of the retail long-term oxygen therapy market and how the opportunity may change as POC penetration increases, (viii) the share of POCs as a percentage of the total oxygen therapy spend, and (ix) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related PHE on our business and our markets generally are based on estimates that we believe are reliable. These estimates may prove to be incorrect, new data or studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of patients requiring long-term oxygen therapy, or the type of long-term oxygen therapy patients. The COVID-19 pandemic and related PHE may also reduce the number of oxygen therapy patients worldwide due to the higher risk of mortality of elderly patients with existing respiratory diseases if they are exposed to the virus. The number of patients in the United States and internationally may turn out to be lower than expected, patients may not be otherwise amenable to treatment with our products, or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, all of which would adversely affect our results of operations and our business.
An adverse outcome of a sales and use tax audit or change in U.S. tax laws could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
We operate in multiple taxing jurisdictions and certain revenue streams may be subject to sales and use tax. Any changes, ambiguity, or uncertainty in taxing jurisdictions’ administrative interpretations, decisions, policies and positions, including the position of taxing authorities with respect to taxability of our revenue also materially impact our sales and use tax liabilities. We believe that our sales of concentrators and accessories may be subject to sales and use tax in certain states, but that there are exemptions from sales and use tax in most states. There can be no assurance, however, that these states would agree with our position and we may be subject to an audit that may not be resolved in our favor. Such an audit could be expensive and time-consuming and result in substantial management distraction. If the matter were to be resolved in a manner adverse to us, it could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
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Changes in accounting principles, or interpretations thereof, could have a significant effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP). These principles are subject to interpretation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and various bodies formed to interpret and create appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles can have a significant effect on our reported results and may even retroactively affect previously reported transactions. Additionally, the adoption of new or revised accounting principles may require that we make significant changes to our systems, processes and controls.
For example, the U.S.-based Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is currently working together with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) on several projects to further align accounting principles and facilitate more comparable financial reporting between companies who are required to follow U.S. GAAP under SEC regulations and those who are required to follow International Financial Reporting Standards outside of the United States. These efforts by the FASB and IASB may result in different accounting principles under U.S. GAAP that may result in materially different financial results for us in areas including, but not limited to, principles for recognizing revenue and lease accounting. Additionally, significant changes to U.S. GAAP resulting from the FASB’s and IASB’s efforts may require that we change how we process, analyze and report financial information and that we change financial reporting controls.
It is not clear if or when these potential changes in accounting principles may become effective, whether we have the proper systems and controls in place to accommodate such changes and the impact that any such changes may have on our financial condition and results of operations.
Our ability to recognize the benefits of deferred tax assets is dependent on future cash flows and taxable income.
We recognize the expected future tax benefit from deferred tax assets when the tax benefit is considered to be more likely than not of being realized; otherwise, a valuation allowance is applied against deferred tax assets. Assessing the recoverability of deferred tax assets requires management to make significant estimates related to expectations of future taxable income. Estimates of future taxable income are based on forecasted cash flows from operations and the application of existing tax laws in each jurisdiction. To the extent that future cash flows and taxable income differ significantly from estimates, our ability to realize the deferred tax assets could be impacted. In the future, our estimates could change requiring a valuation allowance or impairment of our deferred tax assets. Additionally, limitations under federal or state law could impact our ability to use our deferred tax assets. Finally, future changes in tax laws could limit our ability to obtain the future tax benefits represented by our deferred tax assets. See Note 7 – Income taxes in the notes to our consolidated financial statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information and factors that could impact our ability to realize the deferred tax assets.
The adoption and interpretation of new tax legislation, tax rulings, or exposure to additional tax liabilities, could materially affect our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.
We are subject to income and other taxes in the U.S. and other foreign jurisdictions in which we do business. As a result, our provision for income taxes is derived from a combination of applicable tax rates in the various places we operate. Significant judgment is required for calculating our income tax provision.
Current economic and political conditions make tax laws and regulations, or their interpretation and application, in any jurisdiction subject to significant change. Changes in tax law or tax rulings, or changes in interpretations of existing law, could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. For example, the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated the option to deduct research and development expenditures currently and instead required taxpayers to capitalize and amortize them over five or fifteen years beginning in 2022. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 imposed a 1% excise tax on certain repurchases of stock. Such changes may have a significant impact on our deferred tax assets, income tax provision and effective tax rate. Proposed legislation before the Administration and Congress may make further changes to the U.S. tax law. In addition, many countries in Europe, as well as a number of other countries and organizations, have recently proposed or recommended changes to existing tax laws or have enacted new laws that could significantly increase our tax obligations in many countries where we do business or require us to change the manner in which we operate our business. Changes to existing tax law in the U.S. or other foreign jurisdictions could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
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The Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) sequestration reduction has and may continue to negatively affect our revenue and profits.
Medicare FFS claims with dates of service on or after April 1, 2013 are subject to a 2% sequestration reduction in Medicare payments, including claims for DMEPOS, including in competitive bidding areas. The claims payment adjustment is applied to all claims after determining co-insurance, any applicable deductible, and any applicable Medicare secondary payment adjustments. These reductions are included in rental revenue adjustments. This sequestration reduction was scheduled to continue until further notice. However, a provision in the CARES Act temporarily paused the 2% Medicare sequestration reduction for claims dated from May 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020 and the CARES Act also extended the end date of the Medicare sequestration reduction by one year, through 2030, in order to offset the 2020 suspension. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 was signed into law on December 27, 2020 and extended the suspension period to March 31, 2021. U.S. House of Representatives bill H.R. 1868 was signed into law on April 14, 2021 and extended the suspension period to December 31, 2021, but increased the fiscal year 2030 sequestration cuts. In December 2021 through the Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act, the 2% Medicare sequestration benefit that was set to expire December 31, 2021 was extended through March 31, 2022. The sequestration then resumed with a 1% reduction to rates from April 1, 2022 until June 30, 2022, with the full 2% Medicare sequestration then resumed effective July 1, 2022.
The implementation of prior authorization rules for DMEPOS under Medicare could negatively affect our business and financial condition.
CMS has issued a final rule to require Medicare prior authorization (PA) for certain DMEPOS that the agency characterizes as “frequently subject to unnecessary utilization” and that have an average purchase fee of $1,000 or greater, or an average rental fee schedule of $100 or greater. The final rule was published on December 30, 2015 and specified an initial master list of 135 items that could potentially be subject to PA. Initially stationary oxygen (code E1390) was included on the master list but was later removed. On April 22, 2019, stationary oxygen (E1390) was again added to the list of potential codes that could be subject to PA. On November 8, 2019, CMS revised the criteria for inclusion on the master list and added 212 DMEPOS items, including portable oxygen concentrators (E1392), to the master list. The master list is updated annually and published in the Federal Register. The presence of an item on the master list does not automatically mean that a PA is required. CMS selects a subset of these master list items for its “Required Prior Authorization List.” There will be a notice period of at least 60 days prior to implementation. The ruling does not create any new clinical documentation requirements, instead the same information necessary to support Medicare payment will be required prior to the item being furnished to the beneficiary. CMS has proposed that reasonable efforts are made to provide a PA decision within 10 days of receipt of all applicable information, unless this timeline could seriously jeopardize the life or health of the beneficiary or the beneficiary’s ability to regain maximum function, in which case the proposed PA decision would be 2 business days. CMS will issue additional sub-regulatory guidance on these timelines in the future. If our products become subject to prior authorization, it could reduce the number of patients qualified to come on service using their Medicare benefits, it could delay the start of those patients while we wait for the prior authorization to be received, and/or it could decrease sales productivity. As a result, this could adversely affect our business, financial conditions and results of operations.
Risks related to the regulatory environment
We are subject to extensive federal and state regulation, and if we fail to comply with applicable regulations, we could suffer severe criminal or civil sanctions and be required to make significant changes to our operations that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The federal government and all states in which we currently operate regulate various aspects of our business. In particular, our operations are subject to state laws governing, among other things, distribution of medical equipment and certain types of home health activities, and we are required to obtain and maintain licenses in many states to act as a durable medical equipment supplier. Certain of our employees are subject to state laws and regulations governing the professional practice of respiratory therapy.
As a healthcare provider participating in governmental healthcare programs, we are subject to laws directed at preventing fraud and abuse, which subject our marketing, billing, documentation and other practices to strict government scrutiny. To ensure compliance with Medicare, Medicaid and other regulations, government agencies or their contractors often conduct routine audits and request customer records and other documents to support our claims submitted for payment of services rendered. Government agencies or their contractors also periodically open investigations and audits and obtain information from healthcare providers. Violations of federal and state laws or regulations can result in severe criminal, civil and administrative fines, penalties and sanctions, including debarment, suspension or exclusion from Medicare, Medicaid and other government reimbursement programs, any of which would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Changes in healthcare laws and regulations and new interpretations of existing laws and regulations may affect permissible activities, the relative costs associated with doing business, and reimbursement amounts paid by federal, state and other third-party payors. There have been and will continue to be regulatory initiatives affecting our business and we cannot predict the extent to which future legislation and regulatory changes could have a material adverse effect on our business.
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We are subject to significant regulation by numerous government agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. We cannot market or commercially distribute our products without obtaining and maintaining necessary regulatory clearances or approvals and such approvals may be revoked or revised if an agency like the FDA believes it necessary.
Our products are medical devices subject to extensive regulation in the United States and in the foreign markets where we distribute our products. The FDA and other U.S. and foreign governmental agencies regulate, among other things, with respect to medical devices:
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design, development and manufacturing;
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testing, labeling, content and language of instructions for use and storage;
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clinical trials;
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product safety;
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marketing, sales and distribution;
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pre-market clearance and approval;
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record keeping;
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advertising and promotion;
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recalls and field safety corrective actions;
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post-market surveillance, including reporting of deaths or serious injuries and malfunctions that, if they were to recur, could lead to death or serious injury;
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post-market approval studies; and
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product import and export.
Before we can market or sell a medical device in the United States, we must obtain either 510(k) clearance, clearance under the de novo process or approval of a pre-market approval application from the FDA, unless an exemption applies. In the 510(k) clearance process, the FDA must determine that a proposed device is “substantially equivalent” to a device legally on the market, known as a “predicate” device, with respect to intended use, technology and safety and effectiveness, in order to clear the proposed device for marketing.
Our commercial products have received 510(k) clearance by the FDA. If the FDA requires us to go through a lengthier, more rigorous examination for future products or modifications to existing products than we had expected, our product introductions or modifications could be delayed or canceled, which, depending on the specific action, could cause the majority of our sales to decline or cease altogether. In addition, the FDA may determine that future products will require the more costly, lengthy and uncertain pre-market approval process. Although we do not currently market any devices subject to pre-market approval, the FDA may demand that we obtain a pre-market approval prior to marketing certain future products. In addition, if the FDA disagrees with our determination that a product we currently market is subject to an exemption from pre-market review, the FDA may require us to submit a 510(k), de novo application or pre-market approval application in order to continue marketing the product. Further, even with respect to those future products where a pre-market approval is not required, we cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain the 510(k) clearances with respect to those products or do so in a timely fashion.
The FDA can delay, limit or deny clearance or approval of a device for many reasons, including:
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we may not be able to demonstrate to the FDA’s satisfaction that our products are safe and effective for their intended uses;
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the data from our pre-clinical studies and clinical trials may be insufficient to support clearance or approval, where required; and
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the manufacturing process or facilities we use may not meet applicable Quality System Regulations.
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Medical devices may only be promoted and sold for the indications for which they are approved or cleared. In addition, even if the FDA has approved or cleared a product, it can take action affecting such product approvals or clearances if serious safety or other problems develop in the marketplace. Delays in obtaining clearances or approvals could adversely affect our ability to introduce new products or modifications to our existing products in a timely manner, which would delay or prevent commercial sales of our products. Additionally, the FDA and other regulatory authorities have broad enforcement powers. Regulatory enforcement or inquiries, or other increased scrutiny on us, could affect the perceived safety and performance of our products and dissuade our customers from using our products.
If we modify our FDA cleared devices, we may need to seek additional clearances or approvals, which, if not granted, would prevent us from selling such modified products.
Any modification we make to our products that could significantly affect their safety or effectiveness, or would constitute a material change in intended use, manufacture, design, materials, labeling, or technology requires the submission and clearance of a new 510(k) pre-market notification, a de novo application or, possibly, pre-market approval. The FDA requires every manufacturer to make this determination in the first instance, but the FDA may review and disagree with any manufacturer’s decision. The FDA may not agree with our decisions regarding whether new clearances or approvals are necessary. We have modified some of our 510(k) cleared products and have determined that in certain instances new 510(k) clearances or pre-market approval are not required. We plan to make similar determinations regarding modifications to our 510(k) products, which may include the redesign of the Inogen One G5 system motherboard pending validation testing. If the FDA disagrees with our determinations and requires us to submit new 510(k) notifications or pre-market approval for modifications to our previously cleared products for which we have concluded that new clearances or approvals are unnecessary, we may be required to cease marketing or to recall the modified product until we obtain clearance or approval, and we may be subject to significant regulatory penalties or fines.
The FDA issued a new Final Guidance titled Enforcement Policy for Ventilators and Accessories and Other Respiratory Devices During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency (PHE) in March 2020. The intent of the guidance is to help address the urgent COVID-19 PHE. It may expand the availability of devices that support patients with respiratory insufficiency due to COVID-19. The guidance allows certain modifications to applicable FDA-cleared respiratory devices without requiring compliance with the pre-market requirements such as submitting a new 510(k). Manufacturers must ensure the device is safe and effective prior to placing the modified device on the market. This guidance and any future guidance or enforcement policy be the FDA may introduce new competitive products that could compete with our products with an easier regulatory pathway which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. If Inogen uses this guidance to commercialize devices that do not have the FDA clearance, these products will have to go through FDA 510(k) clearance in the future, and may not be granted such clearance, which would mean we would have to withdraw these products from the market when the FDA terminates or revokes such guidance or enforcement policy, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In December 2021, the FDA issued the draft Transition Plan for Medical Devices That Fall Within Enforcement Policies Issued During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency (the “Transition Plan”) for public comment which, among other things, proposes a 180-day transition period for manufacturers to submit permanent marketing applications (e.g., 510(k) clearance, de novo classification or PMA) prior to the date that an enforcement discretion policy terminates. After the 180 days, a manufacturer may continue to market its device while the application is pending, provided that the FDA has accepted the application for substantive review prior to the end of the 180-day period. Manufacturers will be expected to comply with all regulatory requirements at the end of the 180-day period, even if their marketing applications are still pending. The final Transition Plan ultimately published by the FDA may deviate, potentially significantly, from the draft Transition Plan and it is therefore impossible to know exactly how the final Transition Plan will impact our business and regulatory compliance requirements.
If we fail to comply with FDA or state regulatory requirements, we can be subject to enforcement action.
Even after we have obtained regulatory clearance or approval to market a product, we have ongoing responsibilities under FDA regulations. The FDA and state authorities have broad enforcement powers. Our failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements could result in enforcement action by the FDA or state agencies, which may include any of the following sanctions:
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adverse publicity, warning letters, fines, injunctions, consent decrees and civil penalties;
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recalls, termination of distribution, or seizure of our products;
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operating restrictions or partial suspension or total shutdown of production;
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delays in the introduction of products into the market;
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refusal to grant our requests for future 510(k) clearances or approvals of new products, new intended uses, or modifications to exiting products;
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withdrawals or suspensions of current 510(k) clearances or approvals, resulting in prohibitions on sales of our products; and
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criminal prosecution.
For example, our devices are labeled with a 5 or 8-year product life duration and we and our distributors, in some instances, have provided serviced devices after their useful life duration to rental patients in the United States and internationally, or conducted repairs on such devices for the patients who have purchased them. We have taken measures to confirm that continued use of such units was not reported to have created an undue safety risk to patients and is not associated with increased product quality concerns, but there can be no assurance that the risk profile of the devices will not change or that governmental regulatory authorities could not view the practice as a violation of applicable regulations under certain circumstances resulting in adverse regulatory or enforcement action, exposing us to potential fines and other penalties or litigation related to government insurance reimbursement, or warranty or product liability, claims. In such event, our ability to effectively manufacture, market and sell our products could be impaired.
Any of these sanctions could result in higher than anticipated costs or lower than anticipated sales and have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations and financial condition.
A recall of our products, either voluntarily or at the direction of the FDA or another governmental authority, or the discovery of serious safety issues with our products that leads to corrective actions, could have a significant adverse effect on us.
The FDA and similar foreign governmental authorities have the authority to require the recall of commercialized products in the event of material deficiencies or defects in design, labeling or manufacture of a product or in the event that a product poses an unacceptable risk to health. Manufacturers may also, under their own initiative, recall a product if any material deficiency in a device is found or withdraw a product to improve device performance or for other reasons. Similar regulatory agencies in other countries have similar authority to recall devices because of material deficiencies or defects in design or manufacture that could endanger health. A government-mandated or voluntary recall by us or one of our distributors could occur as a result of an unacceptable risk to health, component failures, manufacturing errors, design or labeling defects or other deficiencies and issues. Any recall would divert management attention and financial resources, could cause the price of our stock to decline and expose us to product liability or other claims and harm our reputation with customers. A recall involving our Inogen concentrators could be particularly harmful to our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are required to timely report to the FDA any incident in which our product may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury or in which our product malfunctioned and, if the malfunction were to recur, would likely cause or contribute to death or serious injury. Repeated product malfunctions may result in a voluntary or involuntary product recall. Depending on the corrective action we take to redress a product’s deficiencies or defects, the FDA may require, or we may decide, that we will need to obtain new approvals or clearances for the device before we may market or distribute the corrected device. Seeking such approvals or clearances may delay our ability to replace the recalled devices in a timely manner. Moreover, if we do not adequately address problems associated with our devices, we may face additional regulatory enforcement action, including adverse publicity, FDA warning letters, product seizure, injunctions, administrative penalties, or civil or criminal fines. We may also be required to bear other costs or take other actions that may have a negative impact on our sales as well as face significant adverse publicity or regulatory consequences, which could harm our business, including our ability to market our products in the future.
Any adverse event involving our products, whether in the United States or abroad, could result in future voluntary corrective actions, such as recalls or customer notifications, or agency action, such as inspection, mandatory recall or other enforcement action. Any corrective action, whether voluntary or involuntary, as well as defending ourselves in a lawsuit, will require the dedication of our time and capital, distract management from operating our business and may harm our reputation and results of operations.
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If we, our contract manufacturer, or our component manufacturers fail to comply with the FDA’s Quality System Regulation, our manufacturing operations could be interrupted, and our product sales and operating results could suffer.
We, our contract manufacturer, and our component manufacturers are required to comply with the FDA’s Quality System Regulation, or QSR, which covers the procedures and documentation of the design, calibration, testing, production, control, quality assurance, labeling, packaging, storage and shipping of our devices. The FDA audits compliance with the QSR through periodic announced and unannounced inspections of manufacturing and other facilities. We and our component manufacturers have been, and anticipate in the future being, subject to such inspections. Although we believe our manufacturing facilities and those of our component manufacturers are in compliance with the QSR, we cannot provide assurance that any future inspection will not result in adverse findings. If we fail to implement timely and appropriate corrective actions that are acceptable to the FDA or if our other manufacturing facilities or those of any of our component manufacturers, contract manufacturers, or suppliers are found to be in violation of applicable laws and regulations, or we or our manufacturers or suppliers fail to take prompt and satisfactory corrective action in response to an adverse inspection, the FDA could take enforcement action, including any of the following sanctions:
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adverse publicity, untitled letters, warning letters, fines, injunctions, consent decrees and civil penalties;
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customer notifications or repair, replacement, refunds, recall, detention or seizure of our products;
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operating restrictions or partial suspension or total shutdown of production;
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refusing or delaying our requests for 510(k) clearance or pre-market approval of new products or modified products;
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withdrawing 510(k) clearances or pre-market approvals that have already been granted;
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refusal to grant export approval for our products; or
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criminal prosecution.
Any of these sanctions could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Outside the United States, our products and operations are also often required to comply with standards set by industrial standards bodies, such as the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO. Foreign regulatory bodies may evaluate our products or the testing that our products undergo against these standards. The specific standards, types of evaluation and scope of review differ among foreign regulatory bodies. If we fail to adequately comply with any of these standards, a foreign regulatory body may take adverse actions similar to those within the power of the FDA. Any such action may harm our reputation and could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
The primary regulatory body in Europe is the European Commission, which includes most of the major countries in Europe. The European Commission has adopted numerous directives and standards regulating the design, manufacture, clinical trial, labeling and adverse event reporting for medical devices and assesses whether devices can be commercially distributed throughout Europe based on the class of the product, and typically, a combination of self-assessment by the manufacturer and a third-party assessment by a “Notified Body.” An assessment by a Notified Body of one country within the European Union is required in order for a manufacturer to commercially distribute the product throughout the European Union. The EU MDR does not apply in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and the commercialization of medical devices in that territory must comply with rules set out in domestic legislation including the UK Medical Devices Regulations 2002. Devices that are validly CE marked under the EU regime or UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marked under the UK Medical Devices Regulations 2002 may be placed on the market or put into service in Great Britain. Devices such as portable oxygen concentrators require third-party assessment by a UK approved body, which is an independent organization designated by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to conduct the conformity assessment. The commercialization of medical devices in the UK are also subject to additional national requirements (e.g., registration and where the manufacturer is not established in the UK, the appointment of a UK Responsible Person).
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If we fail to obtain and maintain regulatory approval in foreign jurisdictions, our market opportunities will be limited.
Approximately 28.3%, 26.8% and 22.2% of our total revenue was from sales outside of the United States for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021, respectively. We have sold our products in multiple international countries and overseas regions outside of the United States through our wholly-owned subsidiaries, distributors and directly to large “house” accounts. In order to market our products in the European Union or other foreign jurisdictions, we are required to obtain and maintain separate regulatory approvals and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements. The approval procedure varies from country to country and can involve additional product testing. The time required to obtain approval abroad may be longer than the time required to obtain FDA clearance. For example, the European Union requires that manufacturers of medical devices obtain the right to bear the “CE” conformity marking which designates compliance with existing directives and standards regulating the design, manufacture and distribution of medical devices in member countries of the European Union. In 2017, the European Union adopted the European Medical Device Regulation (Council Regulations 2017/745) which imposes stricter requirements for the marketing and sale of medical devices, including new clinical evaluation, quality system, and post-market surveillance requirements. The regulation had a three-year implementation period, with full application of the regulation occurring in May 2021 and replacing the pre-existing directives on medical devices in the European Union. Since May 2021, devices must be validly CE marked in accordance with the European Medical Device Regulation (MDR) or, if validly CE marked under the Medical Device Directive (MDD) (or AIMDD), meet the requirements of the MDR's transitional arrangements in order to be placed on the market. Devices that do not satisfy either of these requirements cannot be placed on the market or put into service in the EU or EEA, subject to limited exceptions.
The conformity assessment certificate under the MDD for Inogen's devices expired on May 18, 2022. The conformity assessment certification under the EU Medical Devices Regulation was issued by our notified body for our Inogen One G4 and Rove 6, the updated version of its Inogen One G5 portable oxygen concentrators, on December 12, 2022. We have authorization to affix the CE Mark to our oxygen therapy products and to commercialize our devices in the EU and EEA. Inogen obtained its United Kingdom Conformity Assessed (UKCA) certificate covering the Inogen One G4, Inogen One G5 and Inogen at Home oxygen concentrators on April 27, 2022, which allowed Inogen to affix a UKCA mark to these devices and market them in Great Britain.
The foreign regulatory approval process, including with respect to MDR and other jurisdictions, includes many of the risks associated with obtaining FDA clearance and we may not obtain foreign regulatory approvals on a timely basis, if at all. FDA clearance does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries, and approval by one foreign regulatory authority does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other foreign countries. However, the failure to obtain clearance or approval in one jurisdiction may have a negative impact on our ability to obtain clearance or approval elsewhere. If we do not obtain or maintain necessary approvals to commercialize our products or fail to comply with the applicable regulatory requirements in markets outside the United States, we may be required to discontinue sales in those countries which would negatively affect our overall market penetration, revenues, results of operations and financial condition.
If the FDA disagrees with us that certain of our data collection and analysis methods do not constitute clinical trials, our business may be harmed.
We gather and analyze certain de-identified retrospective patient data as part of our product development and improvement. We believe that these data collection methods do not constitute clinical trials and, therefore, typically do not pursue or obtain regulatory permission from the FDA or institutional review boards (IRBs) before collecting or analyzing such data. If the FDA disagrees with our interpretation, we may be subject to regulatory enforcement including warning letters, fines, injunctions, consent decrees and civil penalties. In addition, we may be required to collect these types of data under the clinical trial regulatory framework.
Clinical development is a long, expensive, and uncertain process and is subject to delays and the risk that products may ultimately prove unsafe or ineffective in treating the indications for which they are designed. Completion of clinical trials may take several years or more. We may experience numerous unforeseen events in relation to a clinical trial process that could delay or prevent us from receiving regulatory clearance or approval for new products or modifications of existing products, including new indications for existing products, including:
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delays or failure in obtaining approval of our clinical trial protocols from the FDA, other regulatory authorities, or IRBs;
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we, the applicable IRBs, the Data Safety Monitoring Board for such trial, or the FDA or other applicable regulatory authorities may require that we or our investigators suspend or terminate our data collection for various reasons, including, among others (i) failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements, including the FDA’s current Good Clinical Practice (GCP), regulations, or our clinical protocols, (ii) by the FDA or other applicable regulatory authority resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, or (iii) lack of adequate patient informed consent; and
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delays if the FDA concludes that our financial relationships with our data collection partners result in a perceived or actual conflict of interest that may have affected the interpretation or integrity of the data collected. If these relationships and any related compensation to or ownership interest by our data collection partners carrying out the study result in perceived or actual conflicts of interest, or if the FDA concludes that the financial relationship may have affected interpretation of the data, the integrity of the data collected or analyzed may be questioned and the utility of the data itself may be jeopardized, which could result in the delay or rejection by the FDA. Any such delay or rejection could prevent us from commercializing any of our products currently in development.
Any delays in completing our data collection and analysis will increase our costs, slow down our product development and regulatory authorization process and jeopardize our ability to commence sales and generate associated revenue with respect to the applicable product. Any of these occurrences may significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We are subject to complex billing and record-keeping requirements in order to substantiate our claims for payment under federal, state and commercial healthcare reimbursement programs, and our failure to comply with existing requirements, or changes in those requirements or interpretations thereof, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to complex billing and record-keeping requirements in order to substantiate our claims for payment under federal, state and commercial healthcare reimbursement programs. Our records also are subject to routine and other reviews by third-party payors, which can result in delays in payments or refunds of paid claims. We could experience a significant increase in pre-payment reviews of our claims by the Durable Medical Equipment Medicare Administrative Contractors, which could cause substantial delays in the collection of our Medicare accounts receivable as well as related amounts due under supplemental insurance plans.
Current law provides for a significant expansion of the government’s auditing and oversight of suppliers who care for patients covered by various government healthcare programs. Examples of this expansion include audit programs being implemented by the Durable Medical Equipment Medicare Administrative Contractors, the Unified Program Integrity Contractors, the Recovery Audit Contractors, and the Comprehensive Error Rate Testing contractors, operating under the direction of CMS, and the various state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
We have been informed by these auditors that healthcare providers and suppliers of certain durable medical equipment product categories are expected to experience further increased scrutiny from these audit programs. When a government auditor ascribes a high billing error rate to one or more of our locations, it generally results in protracted pre-payment claims review, payment delays, refunds and other payments to the government and/or our need to request more documentation from providers than has historically been required. It may also result in additional audit activity in other company locations or Durable Medical Equipment Medicare Administrative Contractors jurisdiction. We cannot currently predict the adverse impact that these audits, methodologies and interpretations might have on our business, financial condition or results of operations, but such impact could be material.
We may be subject to fines, penalties or injunctions if we are determined to be promoting the use of our products for unapproved or “off-label” uses, resulting in damage to our reputation and business.
Our promotional materials and training methods are required to comply with the FDA and other applicable laws and regulations, including the prohibition of the promotion of a medical device for a use that has not been cleared or approved by the FDA. Physicians may use our products off-label, as the FDA does not restrict or regulate a physician’s choice of treatment within the practice of medicine. If the FDA determines that our promotional materials or training constitutes promotion of an off-label use that is either false or misleading, it could request that we modify our training or promotional materials or subject us to regulatory or enforcement actions, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and results of operations.
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Failure to comply with the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH Act, and implementing regulations could result in significant penalties.
Numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including HIPAA and the HITECH Act, govern the collection, dissemination, security, use and confidentiality of patient-identifiable health information. HIPAA and the HITECH Act require us to comply with standards for the use and disclosure of protected health information within our company and with third parties. The Privacy Standards and Security Standards under HIPAA establish a set of basic national privacy and security standards for the protection of individually identifiable health information by health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and certain healthcare providers, referred to as covered entities, and the business associates with whom such covered entities contract for services. Notably, whereas HIPAA previously directly regulated only these covered entities, the HITECH Act, which was signed into law in 2009, makes certain of HIPAA’s privacy and security standards directly applicable to covered entities’ business associates. Both covered entities and business associates are subject to significant civil and criminal penalties for failure to comply with the Privacy Standards and Security Standards under HIPAA.