Background

Tim Herbert is Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Inspire Medical Systems, the publicly-listed medical device company (NYSE: INSP) that makes the Inspire hypoglossal nerve stimulation system for moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea in patients who cannot tolerate continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Inspire Medical Systems was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota. The company went public on the NYSE in May 2018.

Leadership at Inspire Medical Systems

Under Herbert’s leadership, Inspire has scaled the Inspire system from initial FDA approval into broad commercial deployment, becoming the dominant US implantable therapy in its category. The company has built a direct sales organisation and an extensive ENT physician network for the procedure.

2026 commercial challenges

In May 2026, Herbert led the company through a material guidance cut driven by the CMS WISeR (Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction) prior-authorization programme that took effect 1 January 2026 and a related CPT code transition. Inspire revised 2026 revenue guidance to $825-875 million from a prior $950 million-$1 billion range, a projected decline of 4-10% versus 2025. Inspire attributed approximately $20 million of Q1 2026 impact to CMS WISeR and CPT code transition uncertainty, with total full-year impact projected at $120-150 million. The headwinds also include GLP-1 medication competition, salesforce disruption, and increased device competition. Bank of America analyst Travis Steed downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underperform in the same week as the guidance cut.

Strategic context

Inspire under Herbert sits on the open-loop end of the neuromodulation market and is one of the most visible companies caught in the CMS WISeR bifurcation pattern that has structurally differentiated 2026 trajectories across the neuromodulation cohort.