Archive: October 2005
Baird: Hospital joint ventures 'pop up all over the place'
October 31, 2005HME News Staff
AMARILLO, Texas - Some HME providers are once again entering the legally slippery terrain of hospital joint ventures, said Jeff Baird, a healthcare attorney with Brown & Fortunato here. In April 2003, the OIG issued a special bulletin warning HMEs not to enter into joint ventures with hospitals if the HME assumes all the financial risk. Such arrangements could be construed as an illegal kick back arrangement. Nevertheless, Baird said, he's been seeing such partnerships "pop up all over the place."...
Accreditation: Sizing up options
October 31, 2005HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine - Accreditation organizations have compared their programs with Medicare's draft quality standards released in late September, and they have good and bad news for HME providers.
The good news: The business quality standards outlined in the first section of the draft should be nothing new to accredited providers, with the exception of the financial management requirements. The bad news: The product specific service requirements outlined in the second section are dramatically more detailed...
Readers: CMS proposal 'bad idea'
October 31, 2005HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine - Everyone has their two cents when it comes to CMS's proposal to drop CMNs for power wheelchair and scooter claims and replace them with prescriptions and medical records.
More than 50 of the 244 respondents to October's HME News Poll chose to elaborate on the agency's interim final rule, which was scheduled to go into effect Oct. 25, and most of their comments were negative.
"It takes a full-time employee that is educated and very knowledgeable about the correct way to fill out...
Accreditation: Hope for the best; prepare for the worst
October 31, 2005HME News Staff
Q. CMS has not deemed what agencies will be able to perform accreditation, and I am up for renewal. Should I renew or wait to see if my current accreditor is able to participate in the program?
A. If you are already accredited, your best bet is to continue with the organization you are familiar with. CMS has indicated that it will consider a grandfathering process for those that are already accredited, but it has been very vague on the details of how such a process will work. The new regulation...
Challenges abound for vendors
October 31, 2005HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine - HME manufacturers face the unenviable challenge of maintaining R&D - the life blood of any company with aspirations to grow - while cutting costs and streamlining operations to offset reimbursement cuts.
"If providers are not healthy and can't support the current technology, access to technology and innovation will become difficult," said Joe Priest, president of AirSep. "If the government doesn't give providers time to adjust and keeps hammering them, it will get to the point...
Medline clerk rescues refugees from burning bus
October 31, 2005HME News Staff
DALLAS - For Medline shipping clerk Irma Campanella, the horror began shortly after 6 a.m. on Sept. 23.
Like most Fridays, she and her husband got up early so they could go to breakfast together before work. About 10 miles into their trip to the Waffle House, traffic, thick with refugees fleeing Hurricane Rita, slowed to a crawl. Hoping to find a faster route, Campanella, 48, and her husband took the next exit they could.
That's when they saw a chartered bus with one of its wheels on fire parked...
Sleep centers rest easy: Referrals continue to fuel growth
October 31, 2005HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine - Continued growth in the CPAP market should rise 15% or more over the next 12 months, with cardiologists playing a bigger role in patient referrals, according to a report released in September by Wachovia Securities.
The 37 sleep centers that responded to the survey reported that, while they continue to add bed capacity, backlogs of patients still exist.
By some estimates, the Wachovia's estimate of the CPAP market is conservative. Sleep manufacturer Resmed, for example, estimates...
Post Katrina - Rebuilding from rubble
October 31, 2005HME News Staff
I've just returned from the Mississippi coast delivering supplies to my staff there and searching for our patients. I returned home to find I had electricity and water for the first time since the storm, and I checked my e-mail and read your stories. I thought you might want an update, since I've just seen it for myself.
Approximately 35% to 40% of my patient base lived on the coast - most below Interstate 10, where the destruction is most severe. The pictures and news reports do no justice to the...
Portable concentrator lightens load
October 31, 2005HME News Staff
BUFFALO, N.Y. - AirSep's FreeStyle portable concentrator, which the company debuted as a prototype at last year's Medtrade, officially went on sale last month.
The FreeStyle weighs in at a hair under 4.5 pounds and should be appropriate for 80% of the ambulatory oxygen population," said company President Joe Priest.
Priest and other proponents of portable oxygen concentrators believe this modality is the future of ambulatory oxygen, destined to dominate that market segment much like the stationary...
Provider 'carefully racheting up' Medicare biz
October 31, 2005HME News Staff
HOUSTON - A custom rehab provider with an office in Houston is still taking baby steps to increase its Medicare business, years after Wheeler Dealer hit Harris County.
Adorno Mobility was released from medical review last spring, but it's still in the process of re-building its Medicare business. (Harris County providers have been under 100% review since Wheeler Dealer; when they reduce their denial rates to an appropriate level, they're released.)
"[Once we got the letter], we didn't jump on it...