Archive: October 2004
Conferences: Provider picks
October 31, 2004HME News Staff
Seminar: Diabetes Supplies - The Game Has Changed
Speaker: David Sommerfeld
Time: 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.
Since our company is only an hour drive from Medtrade this year, we plan on taking advantage of the educational seminars with as many of our staff as possible. Our company is very committed to servicing our diabetes customers. We understand how important the paperwork is to receive and keep Medicare reimbursement. Our focus has primarily been meter, strips and lancets, and we need to be aware of...
Election 2004
October 31, 2004HME News Staff
Kerry stumps for more home healthcare; the president wants to see how MMA changes pan out
We asked the Bush and Kerry campaigns a series of questions about home-based health care, competitive bidding, the FEHPB-based payment rate reductions, fraud and HCPCS coding. A senior health policy advisor for the Bush/Cheney campaign answered with a single statement. A Kerry/Edwards adviser answered in greater detail. (For the sake of brevity, our questions precede the Kerry campaign's replies only.)
To...
Distribution
October 31, 2004HME News Staff
ADEL, Iowa - Evo Medical Solutions, a company best known as a nebulizer-based manufacturer-distributor and formerly known as Medical Industries America, plans to sell 2,000 Inogen One. 9.5-lb concentrators into the marketplace by the end of the year.
As the exclusive U.S. distributor of Inogen's cutting-edge concentrator, Evo is barging from the margins of home respiratory care to the red-hot center of a $2 billion-plus home oxygen therapy market.
To lead this new push into oxygen, Evo's founders,...
Doug Harrison: The Sam Walton of Rehab
October 31, 2004HME News Staff
As much as anyone in the HME industry, Scooter Store founder Doug Harrison may be a victim of his own success.
By employing mass-marketing techniques and TV advertising to aggressively reach out to seniors, Harrison's share of the Medicare K0011 market reached an astonishing 57% in 2003.
Like Wal-Mart's founder Sam Walton, Harrison figured out a new way to deliver a product to the public. He realized that the power wheelchair market, like most retail markets, was shifting. Consumers can think for...
HME swindled patients, state alledges
October 31, 2004HME News Staff
BALTIMORE - A three-year battle between the Maryland attorney general's office and a phony home medical equipment dealer continued in September before the Maryland Court of Appeals.
The state is arguing for the reversal of a previous appeal that ruled it could not require the business owner to take out a surety bond. The state had originally required the bond to protect people with future complaints against Allied Home Healthcare, according to an official connected with the case.
In the original...
GAO advises CMS on NCB
October 31, 2004HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - The GAO in September recommended a “cookie-cutter” approach to competitive bidding, arguing that similar policies across all 80 locations and a mail-order delivery system could simplify the roll out of the national pricing program.
The GAO's report, “Past Experience Can Guide Future Competitive Bidding for Medical Equipment and Supplies,” offered suggestions on how to streamline implementation and took into account insights gained from two previous competitive...
Briefs
October 31, 2004HME News Staff
First Choice sells nursing division, keeps HME
AUGUSTA, Ga. - First Choice Medical sold its home care services operations to Louisville, Ky.-based ResCare in September. First Choice's skilled nursing operations served more than 700 people from 16 locations in Georgia. That business will become part of Southern Home Care Services, a ResCare subsidiary that provides in-home services in Georgia and South Carolina. The transaction is expected to generate approximately $4.6 million in annual revenue...
2005 looks promising for the HME industry
October 31, 2004HME News Staff
Every industry has challenges - and the home medical equipment (HME) industry is no exception. In my opinion, the following are the key issues impacting our mutual businesses as we look to the future:
1. Power wheelchair access and reimbursement: Through our industry coalition RAMP - Restore Access to Mobility Partnership, which Invacare helps to fund - we have worked this year to ensure that the Medicare program appropriately pays for power wheelchairs that seniors and people with disabilities...
RDI’S Trowbridge names new leadership
October 31, 2004HME News Staff
FOLEY, Ala. - Respiratory Distributors in August bolstered its front office by hiring three new executives, a move President Keith Trowbridge said will abet the company's efforts to spur growth.
Chris Lemley joins RDI as the new vice president of national accounts. He previously worked as the corporate accounts manager at Home Diagnostics Incorporated and also spent six years as the national sales manager for Letco Medical.
“Medicare is a very important part of what we all do these days,”...
Rising healthcare costs tax providers
October 31, 2004HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine - Five years ago, Pulmonary Health Services stopped paying 100% of its employees' healthcare, and began requiring them to contribute 35%. This year, the Pittsburgh company's healthcare plan raised prices 17%. Still, President Jim McGrath did not ask employees to boost their contribution. Next year, however, all bets are off.
“I'm trying to hold the line, realizing we are going to have to look at some real changes as we get into 2005,” McGrath said. “It's really...