Archive: April 2002
"I think the conclusion you can draw is that Innomed wrote a press release that was sufficiently effective in scaring
April 30, 2002HME News Staff
-Â Analyst Bruce Jacobs of Deutsche Banc Alex Brown in Boston on the stock prices of the nation's two CPAP heavyweights, respironics and resmed, declining sharply following reports that innomed technologies had logged $20 million in sales commitments for its new nasal interface.
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William Post has joined Respironics as vice president of sales and marketing. Post previously worked as president and CEO of Opticon Medical, a development-stage medical device company in the...
OIG questions GALIC billing
April 30, 2002HME News Staff
ST. LOUIS — Nearly $43 million of the Medicare Part B administrative costs claimed by the General American Life Insurance Company (GALIC) are being questioned and recommended for disallowance, according to a recent OIG report.
The report alleges GALIC did not provide sufficient documentation to support its indirect costs, fringe benefits, miscellaneous costs and termination costs from Oct. 1993, through Dec. 1999. Two of those areas, indirect costs and fringe benefits, account for $38 million...
Administrative update
April 30, 2002HME News Staff
TALLAHASEE, Fla. — Florida has temporarily put its competitive bidding project on hold, partially, it seems, in response to an industry lawsuit.
As it did three years ago when a Medicare competitive bidding project sped into Polk County, the Florida Association of Medical Equipment Services (FAMES) has filed a lawsuit asking the court to put the brakes on a new competitive bidding project for Medicaid.
The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), which administers Florida's Medicaid...
10-lbs. concentrator wins 510(k)
April 30, 2002HME News Staff
BUFFALO, N.Y. — AirSep's 9.75-lbs. portable oxygen concentrator has received the FDA's 510(k) marketing clearance and was scheduled to start shipping last month.
Calling it the "the first real breakthrough technology in oxygen equipment in two decades," AirSep president and COO Joseph L. Priest said the LifeStyle Portable Oxygen Concentrator has generated more interest from home respiratory providers than any other product released by the company.
The LifeStyle continuously produces its own...
Region D's Hoover on auditing
April 30, 2002HME News Staff
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — HME News talked to Region D Medical Director Dr. Robert Hoover last month regarding industry claims that the DMERCs are auditing more aggressively than ever before. In Region D, Hoover said, that is not the case. In fact, Cigna does everything it can to educate providers so they submit clean claims. "The more times you touch a claim, the less efficient you are," Hoover said. "It makes our job easier when we don't find errors." Perceptions that the DMERCs are more aggressive...
Unbundling: What makes sense?
April 30, 2002HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine —Â MED Group CEO David Miller's proposal to create higher HME supplier standards and to rework the Medicare fee schedule (see HME News, April 15, 2002) turned heads at AAHomecare's Leadership Conference in February and has kindled opinions among HME providers that both parallel Miller's proposal and diverge from it.
In follow-up interviews with a handful of HME industry leaders, HME News found a consensus of opinion on at least two points: that the Medicare program must...
Cross-walked codes force Pa. HMEs to run for help
April 30, 2002HME News Staff
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania HMEs have enlisted the aid of state legislators to help locate the law that allows Medicaid to cut reimbursement to 80% of the Medicare allowable when it changes a product's code.
Medicaid began cutting reimbursement for "cross walked" codes in December 2000 when it cut reimbursement from 12% to 25% on 17 products, said Claire Turner, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Medical Suppliers.
"We said what's going on: It's the same item just a...
The ABN: not just about the upgrade
April 30, 2002HME News Staff
LAS VEGAS — The fastest regulatory change coming down the pike shouldn't blind-side suppliers. It's the much-hyped advanced beneficiary notice (ABN), the form advising beneficiaries that Medicare might not cover an item they're purchasing.
Asela Cuervo, senior v.p. and general counsel for AAHomecare, schooled a full house on the ABN during a conference session titled "Regulatory Developments That Affect The Homecare Industry" at Medtrade Spring last month.
Although the upgrade provision of...
MSRP under siege: How low will you go?
April 30, 2002HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine — Providers have always offered discounts below the MSRP to provide consumers with the sense that they are getting a deal. But the deep discounting offered by Internet and 1-800 companies has created what Rick Atkins calls a "Wal-Mart mentality."
For example, Atkins explains, a potential customer comes in with printed literature, saying "can you beat this."
"Sometimes there is no way I can," said Atkins of Mobility Plus in Oklahoma City. "And it seems that every time I sell...
Scully mixes it up with Congress
April 30, 2002HME News Staff
WASHINGTON — CMS Administrator Tom Scully backed down from his refusal to appear before the House Small Business Committee to answer questions on whether Medicare's reimbursement policies hurt small businesses that market medical devices.
In early April, Scully defied a congressional subpoena to appear before the committee, saying he would not attend a hearing with individuals he regulates. Scully added that he would address the committee separately and listen to testimony from the other witnesses,...