Archive: 2004
Mal Mixon: The man, the legend
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
Years from now, long after the BBA ‘97 and the Wheeler Dealers are forgotten, people in the HME industry will still be talking about Invacare CEO Mal Mixon. Like him or loathe him, you can't ignore him or the company he wields. Swaggering, outspoken and relentless, Mixon is the industry's largest personality. In this wayward corner of the business world, Mixon's who we have instead of Iacocca and Welch.
Stories about him have already acquired a sepia-like cast. Take the one about how, on a whim,...
Rehab
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
HOUSTON, Texas - Once again something weird and possibly fraudulent appears to be going on in Harris County, Texas, ground zero for the Wheeler Dealer power wheelchair scandal in fall 2003.
Starting in February 2004, Harris County (Houston) providers submitted on average monthly charges of $1.5 million for power wheelchairs. In October, following rumors that CMS might stop its manual review of PWC claims there, the submitted charges spiked to $10.4 million, said Steve McAdoo, associate regional...
Briefs
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
GAO slams CMS for lax power chair oversight
WASHINGTON - CMS has made gains correcting in-house problems that lead to skyrocketing power wheelchair utilization, but it still has a long way to go, according to a critical new report from the GAO released last month. The DMERCs began warning CMS about escalated spending for power wheelchairs in 1997. CMS officials, however, ignored the warnings until September 2003 when the giant Wheeler Dealer fraud scandal broke out in Harris County, Texas. Since...
Twilight Zone
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
Editor, HME News
Those guys in the media, huh? You never know what they're going to do next.
This month, the guys in the mainstream news business pointed their camera and held up their microphone to report on two issues at the center of the typical HME supplier's Medicare business - the K0011 power wheelchair (see story) and the oxygen concentrator (see story).
National Public Radio ran a legitimate, well balanced story about K0011 utilization, and an ABC news station in Columbus, Ohio, took on...
Dave Hobson: A Capitol friend
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
If the legislative play hatched by Rep. Dave Hobson, R, Ohio, succeeds, every DMEPOS supplier will enjoy a bottom line that's got anywhere from 3% to 23% more cushion in select product categories. That legislation - H.R. 4491 - is now making the rounds on Capitol Hill and would repeal that provision of the MMA which calls for reimbursement reductions of 10-20% for home oxygen, 20% for hospital beds and 23% for nebulizers.
Of course, no one expects this legislation to pass. It's part of a legislative...
Preparing for 2005 & beyond
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
Medicare cuts spur acquisitions, creative thinking
YARMOUTH, Maine - 2004 was a banner year for acquisitions, and 2005 doesn't look like it will cool down any, especially now that Rotech is back in the game.
With large Medicare reimbursement cuts scheduled for 2005, Apria (which closed an “unprecedented” number of acquisitions in the third quarter of 2004), Lincare, Air Products and other publicly traded providers must prove to Wall Street that they are still growth companies. To do...
Book review
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
As an angry young man, David T. Williams used to harangue the paratransit bus operator when his wheelchair-accessible bus was late. Visiting friends, he smoldered over the placement of furniture that hindered his wheelchair. He took offense with strangers who held the door for a young father of two.
“My anger knew no bounds and the targets of my anger included family, friends and strangers. I was not a fun guy to be around,” Williams writes in his affecting first book, Battling the Beast:...
Pilot program
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
ATLANTA - Mobility Designs is making the skies friendlier - for power wheelchair users.
The company this fall teamed up with Delta Airlines to provide training to airport gate and ramp agents on how to protect expensive pieces of power mobility equipment from being damaged in flight.
Mobility Designs has seen it all when it comes to these broken wheelchairs. Located it Atlanta, a major Delta hub, Mobility Designs has become the go-to supplier for Delta and other carriers when they need something...
Reimbursement
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
Cut costs, not quality
with Esther Apter
Q. Since Medicare appeals have to be filed in 120 days, how can I make sure I don't lose timely-filing and file effective appeals?
A. The timely-filing window of opportunity for initial submission is longer than for a denied claim. Not all rejected claims are classified as denials. The codes listed on the remittance advice specify the reason for the rejection as well as which claims must be appealed within 120 days. All other claims can be resubmitted as...
Charles Grassley: Chairman of the board
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, was the industry's best legislative hedge against competitive bidding. And for awhile, it looked as if the hedge might hold. Before the House issued the details of its Medicare reform legislation last year, Grassley's crew beat them to the punch and revealed a very palatable suite of changes for the HME industry, including a seven-year CPI freeze and an accreditation requirement. Would that it were so.
The industry has been feting...