Archive: June 2007
Sales
June 30, 2007HME News Staff
Q. How can we sell to doctors when they will only give us a few minutes of their time?
A. One of the biggest challenges for the HME salesperson is to get in front of the doctor. Winning over the office staff or proverbial "gatekeeper" is usually the first step to actually meeting with the doctor. In many cases, you only get a chance to speak with the doctor while he is in between patients. Even if the doctor is not seeing patients, they typically do not give a lot of presentation time to the HME...
AHP turns around
June 30, 2007HME News Staff
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. - American HomePatient reported revenues of $76.9 million for the quarter ended March 31 compared to revenues of $79 million for the same quarter last year. Net income, however, was $1.1 million for the quarter compared to a net loss of $700,000 last year. Operating expenses decreased $3.1 million or 8.2%. The provider blamed the $2.1 million dip in revenues to "non-focus product lines, such as durable medical equipment and infusion therapy."
Provider's Internet sales booming
June 30, 2007HME News Staff
SHERMAN, Texas - Lynncore Medgroup launched a new Web site and line of incontinence products late last year. The result: Internet sales now make up about 50% of total sales.
Buying in large volume and offering fewer product lines helps the provider pass on savings to customers, said CEO Will Cates.
"We provide the best quality products we feel are on the market today," said Cates. "Everything we do is lean and aggressive."
The eight-year-old Lynncore now offers a full line of adult incontinence products,...
Tanner-Hobson garners support
June 30, 2007HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - With less than a year before national competitive bidding kicks off, the industry now has its bases covered in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, both members of the powerful Finance Committee, introduced a bill May 17 that, like the Tanner-Hobson bill in the House, would soften the blow of NCB.
Conrad and Hatch introduced the same bill last fall. If passed, it would exempt from the program rural areas with populations...
HME, inertia and the Idaho Impulse
June 30, 2007HME News Staff
We didn't want to orient this year's HME Business Summit around competitive bidding. As a business newspaper, like Wall Street, we loathe uncertainty and prefer the staid, boring course of making money to the fluctuations imposed by a radical change of business. But I'd be lying if I said that we loathe the opportunity to write about news, and competitive bidding does bring that, but by and large, it's in our interest--as it's in your interest--to bear witness to a robust home medical equipment industry....
Roscoe listens to customers: Company expands mobility line
June 30, 2007HME News Staff
STRONGVILLE, Ohio - Roscoe Medical took seven months of market experience to heart and hit the ground running this spring with an expanded and improved line of manual mobility products, say company officials.
"With a new product line, you don't always know what you need right out of the gate," said Jesse Keirn, vice president of market development. "We had some suspicion initially that we needed more variety, but we took the approach of let's let the market dictate that."
Customer feedback resulted...
Arcadia sells stocks valued at $13 million
June 30, 2007HME News Staff
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - A group of investors has agreed to buy about $13 million worth of Arcadia Resources common stock, the company announced May 25. Originally, the investors--primarily entities affiliated with Potomac Capital Management, an existing investor--had agreed to buy only $4 million worth of stock. Arcadia also issued the investors warrants to purchase additional shares. Arcadia will use the money "to repay existing borrowings and for general corporate purposes," the company stated in a...
Shorter bidding contract could bode bad news
June 30, 2007HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - A shorter competitive bidding contract period for mail order diabetes supplies could mean CMS has bigger plans for the product category, say industry sources.
Contracts for mail order diabetes supplies will run for 20 months, from April 1, 2008, to Dec. 31, 2009. Contracts for all other product categories will run for 36 months, from April 1, 2008, to March 31, 2011.
The shorter contract for diabetes supplies may indicate that CMS wants to see how mail order works and see what providers...
Home infusion bill 'makes sense'
June 30, 2007HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - A revamped home infusion bill seeks coverage of supplies and services under Medicare Part B and drugs under Part D.
Introduced in the House of Representatives June 5, H.R. 2567 is an updated version of last year's H.R. 5791, which sought to consolidate home infusion drugs, supplies and services under Part B.
Splitting coverage between parts B and D makes sense, said Russ Bodoff, executive director of the National Home Infusion Association (NHIA).
"We've already got the pharmaceuticals...
Judge: Fix curbs for wheelchair use
June 30, 2007HME News Staff
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Riverside must pay $221,000 in damages to a 69-year-old paraplegic man who has fought the city for almost two decades to improve curbs and sidewalks for wheelchair use, the Associated Press reported May 17. A federal judge also ordered Riverside to fix 189 curb ramps within four months. The decision represents reportedly the largest award ever in a state case involving disabled access. John Lonberg, who was paralyzed below the waist by a drunken driver in 1983, sued the city almost...