durable medical equipment

Pride Mobility and Quantum Rehab announced in February the stops for its new educational tour. The 2011 Professional Education Partnership will stop in 24 cities beginning in Orlando in March and ending in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in October. The tour features courses like "Mobility Product Troubleshooting and Repair."

I'm beginning to think home medical equipment providers are damned if they do, damned if they don't.
We had a story on the front page of our March issue about industry leaders who are worried providers are helping to "prop up" the competitive bidding program by, among other things, providing services for free to Medicare beneficiaries who can't locate a contract supplier.

A proposal that would shift about 121,000 Medicaid beneficiaries from fee-for-service into managed care plans caught home medical equipment providers by surprise in February.

LAS VEGAS - The HME industry's difficult times aren't being sugarcoated at Medtrade Spring. The challenges created by competitive bidding are formidable and providers that don't adopt some sort of commercial strategy will most likely face financial jeopardy.

LAS VEGAS -Medtrade Spring organizers have adjusted the direction of this year's seminars to help HME providers navigate the labyrinth of a post-competitive bidding world.

A very good industry source recently told me something about competitive bidding that I'd never considered: Many winning providers arranged product pricing with manufacturers before submitting a bid. That makes perfect sense, right? If you know your pricing ahead of time, it's much easier to submit a bid you can live with. If you are in a Round 2 competitive bidding area, that's something to think about. Here are a few more things to consider, according to my source.

After Evelyn Grazini's in-laws passed away, she found herself with a lot of used HME.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida's next legislative session doesn't start until this month, but lawmakers were already making plans to overhaul the state's Medicaid program--a move that some industry stakeholders say could shut HME providers out of the program.

DENVER - HME providers here are confident that a bill to exempt durable medical equipment from the state sales tax will be a no-brainer for state lawmakers.

SACRAMENTO – You'd think a new governor would have new ideas for how to decrease spending. Not when you're talking about Governor Jerry Brown and the state's Medicaid program, Medi-Cal.