Archive: January 2004
Briefs
January 31, 2004HME News Staff
Lincare's stock took a beating in 2003
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Lincare's stock distinguished itself in 2003 as one of only four in the Nasdaq Composite index of 100 companies to lose ground. The Nasdaq Composite closed 2003 at 2,003.37 - Â a 96% jump off a near-term low of 1,108.49 in mid-October of 2002, and a gain of 60% off its 52-week low of 1,253.22 in mid-March 2003. On January 16, Lincare's stock stood at $28.63, well off its 52-week high of 43.98. The company's stock lost much of its value...
U.S. health care spending hit $1.6 trillion in 2002
January 31, 2004HME News Staff
BALTIMORE - Health care spending in the United States rose to $1.6 trillion in 2002, up from $1.4 trillion in 2001 and $1.3 trillion in 2000, according to a report issued last month by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The growth rate of 9.3% for 2002, the latest year for which actual spending figures are available, compared to 8.5% in 2001 and marked the 6th consecutive year in which health spending grew at an accelerated rate.
Health expenditures per person averaged $5,440 in...
Providers still own the ADL market
January 31, 2004HME News Staff
HME providers may be conceding (and in some cases, actually referring) sales of some over-the-counter items to big box retailers like Lowe's and Home Depot, but when it comes to aids to daily living and other assistive devices, they still own the market.
Whether that's good news or not is up for debate, however. Questions persist about whether the ADL market is a worthwhile adjunct to mainstream HME or if it is a “necessary evil” that providers tolerate to appease customers. A recent...
Lymphedema legislation targeting state houses
January 31, 2004HME News Staff
LAS VEGAS - Pulling itself out of the mess caused by rampant fraud and abuse by providers in past years, the lymphedema and vascular disease industry is looking to pass legislation that would require coverage for the care and therapy of these diseases.
Cindy Ortiz, owner of Nevada Vascular and Lymphatic Specialty Company, has devoted nearly two years to working with the National Lymphedema Network (NLN) on legislation, which is framed as patient's rights legislation with a focus on long-term disease...
Wheelchairs
January 31, 2004HME News Staff
Invacare buys motors elsewhere
ELYRIA, Ohio - Invacare has ceased sourcing gearless brushless motors for its custom rehab power wheelchairs from Unique Mobility, based in Frederick, Colo., and has launched a new initiative with another, undisclosed partner to make the product.
Loss of the Invacare contract caused Unique's share price to slump by 18% in mid-December after Unique revealed the news in its 8-K filing with the SEC. Invacare spent $4.1 million with Unique in the last fiscal year.
Invacare...
Boomers are threat
January 31, 2004HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - The Congressional Budget Office warned in mid-December that escalating health care costs and aging baby boomers are threatening to overburden future generations with debt and taxes.
“Unless taxation reaches levels that are unprecedented in the United States, current spending policies will probably be financially unsustainable over the next 50 years,” CBO stated in a long-term budget forecast.
The CBO looked at scenarios that forecast total federal spending for Medicare...
Medicare Drug Act, aka ‘A Fleecing of the DME Industry’
January 31, 2004HME News Staff
Stewart Pace
The January issue of HME News contained a considerable amount of information and commentary regarding the recently passed Medicare Prescription Drug Act. The remaining questions, after the fact seemed to be: ”How did this happen?” “Where do we go from here?” While I can agree with most of the industry pundits as to many of the root causes, I must state that the degree to which we find ourselves mired in this quagmire was an exacerbation of our industry's propensity...
DME
January 31, 2004HME News Staff
NORTH HAVEN, Conn. - Beirne's Home Medical Equipment in the past year has twice gone up in smoke, but co-owner Stephen Votto says that the family-owned HME is still doing fine.
Beirne's Home Medical Equipment after burning ...
Last April, Votto watched the 7,000-square-foot showroom in Hamden Conn., burn down as a result of a welding accident at the business next door.
Five months later, Beirne's had a new home in a North Haven where it is still going strong, despite what a local newspaper article...
Reform bill no obstacle for diabetes provider
January 31, 2004HME News Staff
WAKEFIELD, Mass. - Louis Belmonte, president of the Neighborhood Diabetes Shoppe, refused to take the Medicare Prescription Drug Act's string of abusive DME cuts lying down. Instead, Belmonte has stretched the legs of the 5-year-old business, adding new services and contracts in an attempt to limit the business's dependence on Medicare.
No worries. Staff at the Neighborhood Diabetes Shoppe is pleased with the steps they have taken to limit the effect of the Medicare Prescription Drug Act on their...
CMS nixes new sleep codes
January 31, 2004HME News Staff
BALTIMORE - In a decision issued late last year, CMS rebuffed the sleep industries latest attempts to create billing codes for new technologies
CMS won't budge on a code for Auto CPAP like ResMed's AutoSet Spirit.
A group of sleep manufacturers, led by ResMed, failed again to win a new code for auto CPAP, a middle-ground technology between CPAP and bi-level CPAP.
Respironics, not unexpectedly, failed to win a new code for its C-Flex CPAP but beat back some interest from CMS's Alpha-Numeric Work...