Archive: July 2002
After 25 years, Janet Sahr calls it quits
July 31, 2002HME News Staff
BOSTON - After 25 years as arguably the First Lady of HME, Janet Sahr called it quits recently and retired, a year after selling her $20-plus million company Home Care Supply. Sahr started Medi-Rents with two partners in 1977.
During her career, she served on the Region A DMERC council and as president of the New England Medical Equipment Dealers Association (NEMED). She was the first and only chair of NAMES (now AAHomecare), which recently gave her a Lifetime Achievement award.
Sahr stayed on...
Florida delays start of comp. bidding
July 31, 2002HME News Staff
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - It appears HME providers in Florida have prevailed in stalling the state's competitive bidding project for oxygen equipment and supplies and hospital beds.
The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), which administers the Medicaid program, has acknowledged that the start date for the project has been pushed back due to two roadblocks. In June, the agency and the Florida Association of Medical Equipment Services (FAMES) went head-to-head in court, and the two sides now wait...
Report: CB a bureaucratic nightmare
July 31, 2002HME News Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Implementing a national Medicare competitive bidding program for medical equipment, services and technology will require a 35% increase in the CMS workforce, creating an expansive bureaucracy that "will threaten the well being of Medicare beneficiaries, " states a new report released last month.
The report, "Regulatory Mandates Imposed Under the New Medicare Competitive Bidding Program - Section 511 of the Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act of 2002 (H.R. 4954)" was...
Texas Medicaid puts CB on hold
July 31, 2002HME News Staff
AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Medicaid officials, listening to industry concerns about patient access to quality service, decided not to issue an RFP for competitive bidding last month but reserved its right to do so.
Texas had planned to issue an RFP July 5 and use competitive bidding to shave its DME payments by $7.3 million but instead will work with a provider coalition to develop possible alternatives.
At the moment, those alternatives have focused on eliminating excess utilization and rooting out...
It's time to bridge the gap with CMS
July 31, 2002HME News Staff
If you're not persuaded that the government wants to do something about reimbursment for durable medical equipment, if you think this year's competitve bidding threat is a one-off, or, worse, a damnable consequence of BBA '97, look back to the 1980s when competitive bidding started to shout boo in the president's budget every year.
It ain't going away, even if AAHomecare's right-minded appeals to members of Congress results in the exclusion of competitive bidding from this year's prescription drug...
Capitation could help CMS save money
July 31, 2002HME News Staff
The fact that the federal government is proposing the roll-out of competitive bidding across the nation is no surprise. The government is looking for ways to cut costs that keep rising every year. In less than 10 years, the baby boomers are going to start retiring in droves, and the Medicare population is going to escalate as it has never before.
Costs have to decrease if the baby boomers are ever to see any medical care in their retirement years. So what to do? Where's the model that provides the...
American HomePatient dumps Arthur Andersen
July 31, 2002HME News Staff
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. - American HomePatient dumped Arthur Andersen as its accountant in mid June and is in the process of finding a replacement, according to filings with the Security and Exchange Commission. During the two-and-a-half years the companies worked together, there were no disagreements on accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosures, or auditing scope or procedures. Andersen's audited reports on AHP's consolidated financial statements contained no adverse opinions...
PB ushers rebirth of liquid O2
July 31, 2002HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine - Three years ago, the prospects for the long-term viability for liquid oxygen were so bleak that the three major vendors in the category - Puritan Bennet, Caire and Penox - could hear the ominous footsteps of the bellringer climbing to ring the death knell of liquid oxygen.
"We were laughing then, wondering who would be the last of us to be standing," said Matt Malcolm, v.p. of sales at Penox. "Now it seems as the three of us will be."
The liquid oxygen market did not go down the...
Power wheelchairs
July 31, 2002HME News Staff
Permobil
C2K Corpus - Drive: front
- Size: 43 x 26 x 40 inches
- Weight capacity: 220-265 pounds
- Top speed: 5 mph
- Turning radius: 26 inches
- Range on full charge: 19-25 miles
- Special feature: independent suspension for each wheel
- Warranty: 2 years
C.T.M
HS-5600 - Drive: rear
- Size: 38.7 inches x 24 inches x 45.3 inches
- Weight capacity: 350 pounds
- Top speed: 5 mph
- Range on full charge: 25 miles
- Special feature: Swing-away, joystick controller
- Warranty: 36 months for frame; 12 months...
Ala. VA bids out sleep studies
July 31, 2002HME News Staff
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The VA hospital here put out a bid June 20th for at-home sleep studies, but the exact parameters of how the studies would be conducted remain vague.
"If you don't' have the right equipment that gives you the proper diagnosing, then you are going to have some people out their getting poor studies and the vets will be under served," said Stewart Pace, executive v.p. of Med-South in Jasper, Ala., which operates sleep labs in Alabama and Mississippi.
Pace, who planned to bid on the...