Archive: July 2004
Priority stretches its reach into infusion market
July 31, 2004HME News Staff
LAKE MARY, Fla. — Priority Healthcare, a specialty pharmacy and distributor, deepened its interest in the home infusion business in June with the acquisition of Louisville, Ky.-based Integrity Healthcare.
With this acquisition, Priority strengthens its infusion business and increases the number of its distribution points to complement its disease state management program, said Regina Bienkowski, vice president of Ultimate Recourse, a Pennsylvania-based M&A company.
Similar land grabs may...
N.J. coalition targets NCB
July 31, 2004HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine - A coalition of 22 New Jersey providers has tabled its efforts to stop hospitals from referring most patients who need medical equipment to in-house shops. Instead, the Coalition of Independent Medical Equipment Dealers will direct its energy toward fighting efforts to implement national competitive bidding, said Herb Passerman, a CIMED member.
“Downstreaming” is another fight, and not as pressing as competitive bidding, Passerman said.
BBA '97 requires hospitals to...
Bill Kennedy turns to televison ads for O2 referrals
July 31, 2004HME News Staff
LAWRENCE, Kan. - Bill Kennedy, the man who founded Rotech and sold it for $915 million in 1997, is back with a new company that offers a peek at what the future of home respiratory therapy may look like, or at least one version of it, say industry watchers.
Home Oxygen 2-U confirmed in June that it signed a deal recently to lease 17,000 square feet of office space in Lawrence, Kan. The location will be staffed with 100 employees and operate as a call center. The company's strategy combines consumer...
HMEs rally for H.R. 4491
July 31, 2004HME News Staff
WASHINGTION - Seventeen members of Congress have put their names on H.R. 4491, a House measure that would repeal the FEHPB cuts set to take effect in January.
In addition to the bill's sponsors, David Hobson, D-Ohio, and Harold Ford, Jr., D-Tenn., 10 Democrats and five Republicans have agreed to co-sponsor the industry's best bet to squelch the MMA-prescribed cuts.
The FEHBP cuts and a looming oxygen reduction would lower reimbursement on about two-third's of CMS's DME expenditures, ranging from...
Equity investors tighten HME purse strings
July 31, 2004HME News Staff
BEAUMONT, Texas - Industrial gas giant Praxair's June acquisition of Home Care Supply for $245 million is another example of a wildly successful HME rollup selling for a premium, say industry watchers.
Despite the Home Care Supply deal, private equity groups that might like to finance another roll-up still see too much uncertainty in the HME market to do so. Until competitive bidding and other Medicare reimbursement issues resolve themselves, equity investors will most likely invest their money...
Paperwork burden beating providers to a pulp
July 31, 2004HME News Staff
HME providers have been slow to embrace the paperless initiative being championed by software companies, administrative specialists and financial advisors so far, but the movement may finally gain momentum with passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug Act's new reimbursement-slashing mandates.
While providers may hope that Medicare reform's intent to pattern Medicare Part B after the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan system will eliminate certificates of medical necessity and other documentation,...
CMN defeat leaves CMS speechless
July 31, 2004HME News Staff
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - In what looks like a gigantic legal victory for the HME industry, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled in late June that CMS and the DMERCs can't require a provider to furnish documentation beyond the CMN to prove medical necessity.
In his ruling, Judge Lawrence Karlton stated: “While Congress granted the Secretary broad discretion over medical necessity and billing criteria and procedures, it did not do the same regarding medical necessity...
Scientific data supports LTOT’s cost-effectiveness
July 31, 2004HME News Staff
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - AAHomecare's new white paper on the cost effectiveness of home respiratory therapy may not on its own convince lawmakers that they shouldn't cut Medicare oxygen reimbursement, but it is a “step in the right direction,” said Joe Lewarski, one of the paper's co-authors.
“This paper is only the tip of the iceberg, only the beginning,” said Lewarski, who is home care section chair for the American Association of Respiratory Care. “The point is that home...
A hero’s welcome
July 31, 2004HME News Staff
JACKSON, Tenn. - On April 17, in the small, dusty town of Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, enemy insurgents ambushed Army Specialist Greg Allen's convoy.
“They were on roof tops and in alleys and firing from windows,” said Allen, 34, who returned home May 27 and back to work at Lincare June 21. “I'm sure I was scared, but you just react.”
Prior to being activated on Feb. 10, 2003, the Army reservist supervised drivers and warehouse staff at Lincare's Jackson location, where he's worked...
Study: CPAP could reduce car crashes
July 31, 2004HME News Staff
WESTCHESTER, Ill. - Nearly 1,000 deaths annually could be avoided if drivers suffering from obstructive sleep apnea were treated with CPAP, according to the authors of an article published in the May issue of the journal Sleep.
The study reports that OSA-related car crashes cost the country $15.9 billion in 2000. If 70% of those drivers had been compliant with their CPAP therapy - at a cost of $3.18 billion annually - the study's authors conclude that Americans would save $11 billion.
The study...