Archive: December 2007
Feds foil four in fraudulent family
December 31, 2007HME News Staff
MIAMI - Four members of the same family were each sentenced to 57 months in prison for Medicare fraud and ordered to pay roughly $1.4 million in restitution. Nov. 8. Carlos Berenguer, 61, Ivan Aguera, 34, Aristides Berenguer, 64, and Robert Berenguer, 58, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez in Miami. The four defendants pleaded guilty to all counts in March 2007. Through their companies, Select Medical Equipment, Professional Medical Equipment and Palm Medical Equipment, the four...
Koppel, lawmakers raise COPD profile
December 31, 2007HME News Staff
WASHINGTON -Â Grace Ann Dorney Koppel, the wife of former ABC News anchor Ted Koppel, spoke at the Congressional Health Briefing on COPD Nov. 8. She depicted COPD as the Rodney Dangerfield of diseases. “We don't get no respect,” she said, because many people associate COPD with smoking, even though one in six people who have the disease have never smoked. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Rep. Cliff Stears, R-Fla., also spoke at the briefing, which was hosted by the COPD Congressional...
Make your case when claims are denied
December 31, 2007HME News Staff
Q. What is the Medicare Appeals Council, and what role does it play in the appeals process?”
A. Many providers often do not fully take advantage of the appeals process. Assigned claims that were denied by the Medicare contractor initially and upon review are then appealed to the QIC (“Qualified Independent Contractor”) and, if denied at that level, to the federal Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) level. The ALJ level is the first time the appellant has the opportunity to orally present...
Therapists share in the pain
December 31, 2007HME News Staff
WASHINGTON -Â A Jan. 1 cut to reimbursement for OTs and PTs may have also pushed the Program Safeguard Contractors (PSCs) to dump their ATP requirement, say industry sources.
The medical directors announced in December that they would not move forward with plans to require independent ATPs to conduct certain wheelchair evaluations beginning April 1 (See story, page 1).
“Perhaps the medical directors saw the writing on the wall,” said Tim Pederson, chairman of AAHomecare's Rehab...
NPI warning: Don’t give out your Social Security number
December 31, 2007HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - Providers should double-check their information in the National Provider Identifier (NPI) registry or risk having sensitive information like Social Security numbers disclosed to others, warned Medicare in late November.
Concerns were raised last fall when it became apparent that some providers had entered social security numbers in fields labeled “other provider identification numbers,” “employer identification number (EIN)” and “license numbers.”
CMS...
Apria nixes $265 million debt offering
December 31, 2007HME News Staff
LAKE FOREST, Calif. -Â Apria last week withdrew the sale of $265 million of senior subordinated notes due to “adverse” market conditions. The provider planned to use proceeds from the offering to bankroll its acquisition of Coram. Apria will now draw on its $500 million line of credit to close the $350 million acquisition.
Byram gets back to basics
December 31, 2007HME News Staff
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - After a busy, high-profile string of acquisitions a few years ago, Byram Healthcare adopted a veritable vow of silence, and with good reason.
The $100-million-plus mail-order supplies company needed some quiet time to digest the acquisitions and to get back to the basics of good patient care and customer service, said President/CEO Rick Smith, who joined the company in June 2006.
“Sometimes when you are in a business a long time, you get away from the day-to-day focus...
CHAD dumps conservers
December 31, 2007HME News Staff
CHATSWORTH, Calif. - CHAD Therapeutics, the trailblazing pioneer of oxygen conservation technology, sold its conserver business to Naples, Fla.-based Inovo for $5.25 million in November, giving up the goose that never laid the hoped-for golden eggs.
Twenty years after giving birth to the conserver market, CHAD has essentially cleared the decks for entrée into the multi-billion dollar sleep market. The company hopes to begin marketing its first sleep device in early 2008.
CHAD's decision to exit...
Online provider gets physical
December 31, 2007HME News Staff
SAN JACINTO, Calif. - No one's going to accuse Rod Peterson of following the crowd. While most providers start with a bricks-and-mortar store before venturing onto the Internet, the online entrepreneur moved recently in the opposite direction.
In November, he opened Express CPAP Supply to tap into the local market, he said.
“A lot of the elderly don't have computers and they're being told to go to (nationals) because there is no place else to go,” said Peterson, who also owns youneedsleep.com.
Peterson...
Sen. McCain visits with HME patient
December 31, 2007HME News Staff
JACKSON, Mich. -Â Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., visited with a patient of Great Lakes Home Health during a Nov. 8 campaign stop here.
McCain, a Vietnam War veteran, visited Marvin Seifkin, a World War II veteran, and his wife, Florence, at their home after a town hall rally at “Under the Oaks,” the 1854 birthplace of the Republican party. Great Lakes supplies Seifkin with end-of-life care.
“Mr. Seifkin had some photo albums from WWII, and Mr. McCain recognized...