With so many options, how do you know what works best for mom?

It’s easy today for anyone to “make a breast pump.” There are way too many factories in China with existing mechanisms that are easily manipulated to add a small feature here and there to a shell of a product and turn it into something for another brand. Moms are then sucked into buying something they think is new and revolutionary, but line all these pumps up side by side and there’s miniscule design differences and nothing unique.

Take it a step further and there’s a lack of women actually out there designing the products that are used for women. It’s hard to find pumps that speak to a woman’s body and meet the unique needs of our growing and changing bodies. Throw in social media and paid influencers who sometimes receive six figures to promote a product, and it’s just a recipe for disaster.

For you as a supplier, the first thing you need to ask yourself is if you are able to or if you will offer upgrade fees. Some rules and regulations surround this especially around Medicaid recipients, so it’s best to always check your payer contract before implementing this policy. If you are able to, the world is your oyster but if not, your options will be limited and your web development will be more complex.

Some of the most commonly chosen brands out there today include Medela, Spectra, MomCozy, Willow, Elvie (now owned by Willow), and Baby Buddha. Opinions differ on all of the above and of course there are many other brands not mentioned here but I’ll soon compile a list along with resources for review.

Another important piece to consider is your bandwidth to provide additional insurance covered supplies such as compression socks, belly bands, postpartum support garments, replacement parts, milk bags, and others. Do you have the process’ in place to support text messaging? A back-end system to support auto-delivery? Staff to call on patients to confirm refills? Not all payers are created equal (and don’t we know it!) so again, be sure to reach out to your representative to find out what all moms are eligible for, how often, and at what time they can be dispensed. More on this soon!

Lastly, many moms know exactly what they want while others aren’t too sure. This can be a double edged sword for you as a DME. You see, money talks and manufactures know it. They know that in order for you, the DME, to pay attention to their brand and order their products, moms need to be asking for them. So they pour hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars, into marketing to moms on social media to appeal to them to request these items. So soon, you might be hearing exactly what brands and styles moms want, but you might also soon find yourself seeing a lot of unhappy customers with broken pumps and a lack of solid customer support from said manufacturer. It’s tricky.

I’m here to help!

Info@MommyMedica.com