Archive: December 2004
Best Buy jumps into HME retail
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - In what is perhaps another attempt at HME superstore success, Best Buy Co., the nation's largest merchant of consumer electronics, in 2005 plans to open a new retail concept store that incorporates health, wellness and technology.
Best Buy's new entity, Eq-Life, will begin as an 18,000-square-foot test store located outside of Minneapolis featuring a plethora of health and wellness items that include diabetes supplies, health monitors, nutritionals and exercise equipment. The...
CMS fails GAO’s help line test
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - The people who answer Medicare's telephone help line gave accurate responses to questions less than two-thirds of the time, according to a GAO investigation made public last month. Perhaps the most embarrassing gaffe concerned a question about wheelchairs. Confusing “trunk strength” - a term used by Medicare to mean upper body strength - with a car trunk, one operator “incorrectly explained that Medicare would only cover a power wheelchair if a beneficiary had adequate...
Familiar battles abound in 2005
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
Sometimes working on the legislative and regulatory issues for homecare issues feels like that movie “Groundhog Day.” The movie is about a tortured soul who wakes up morning after morning only to find that he is stuck living the exact same day over and over again.
But it's only a fleeting feeling. The reality is that the homecare industry has the potential to shape its own destiny in Washington. Every new day brings a fresh opportunity to strengthen homecare.
Our challenge in 2005 will...
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...
Ohio TV airs O2 ‘fleecing’
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
COLUMBUS, Ohio - HME suppliers here were on defense in November, following a Fleecing of America-type story on oxygen reimbursement that aired on a local news station, according to the Ohio Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers.
The story brought to light a complaint from one elderly couple who felt that concentrators, like their home CPAP machine, should be a capped rental item under Medicare. The reporter also interviewed Columbus-area provider and AAHomecare Chairman Tim Pontius, who touted...
Ox butt heads
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
CENTER LINE, Mich. - Oximetry testing makes for strange bedfellows these days, especially if you're Bob Rudowski.
At Medtrade this year, Rudowski helped Invacare launch Web Ox, an oximetry testing program that lets HME providers send encrypted oximetry studies to his lab at Oximetry Company for interpretation. Across the hall, Mickey Letson was peddling Power Ox, the oximetry testing distributor that also uses Rudowski's lab and that didn't have a competitor until Rudowski helped Invacare roll out...
David Miller made us better
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
I would like people to know that David Miller in his article (HME News, December 2004) talked about “those who went before us.” I was privileged to work with David in the late 70's and continued to work with him throughout the years. David represents the very characteristic that he talks about in his letter, humility, kindness, passion, and with David he added a sense of humor and a true zest for life. David shared his knowledge and energy with all he met and for me. As one of his suppliers...
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...
Mobility provider takes CMS to court
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
BALTIMORE - In a rare legal move, a small power chair provider here has filed a suit in federal court seeking thousand's of dollars that it claims CMS had no right to recoup following a post-payment audit.
MacKenzie Medical Supply filed its suit in federal district court in Baltimore Aug. 27, claiming Medicare had no right to request information beyond the CMN to document medical necessity. CMS had until Dec. 13 to answer the provider's complaint. The company's lawyers then expect it to take about...
FEHBP cuts: Here they come
December 31, 2004HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - A full court press by the HME industry to repeal Medicare reimbursement cuts based on Federal Employees Health Benefit Plans (FEHBP) appeared headed for certain failure last month.
Industry leaders acknowledged that legislation (H.R. 4491) intended to repealed the cuts - scheduled to go into effect this month - would not pass in 2004. They'd also given up hope that CMS might delay implementing the FEHBP cuts to key items of DME, including nebulizers (a 14% reduction) and concentrators...