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Archive: August 2007


News

Attendees key on education, networking

August 31, 2007HME News Staff

Orlando, Fla. -- HME suppliers attend Medtrade for three main reasons: education, networking and products. No surprise there. What is surprising is the insistence that Medtrade is no longer a buying show by those who attend for other reasons. "The days of Medtrade being a buying show have come to pass," said Josh Anderson, vice president of marketing at TiLite in Kennewick, Wash. "It's important for us to spend time with the clinicians and providers, educating them firsthand." Likewise, the point...

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Competitive bidding: How to prepare now

August 31, 2007HME News Staff

Industry consultant Ken Emerick agrees that CMS will likely make quite a few changes to national competitive bidding before it kicks off the second round of the program in 2009. Just the same, providers who are waiting for competitive bidding to hit the next 80 competitive bidding areas should: Know their costs Rather than worry about what CMS will reimburse under competitive bidding, providers should examine their costs for each product they provide. "For example, what does it cost to maintain a...

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Employees 'help us grow and move forward'

August 31, 2007HME News Staff

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Advanced Healthcare acquired a new branch in mid-July, with an eye toward spreading its clinical focus on oxygen and sleep therapy. Currently, PharmaCare Home Medical's branch in Angola, Ind., focuses on retail sales, something Advanced doesn't do much of. "We want to touch on retail, but we want to remain focused on higher-margin businesses like respiratory," said Russ Johnson, a respiratory therapist who co-owns Advanced and serves as its president. Despite its struggles, PharmaCare's...

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Report: Oxygen cap will hurt

August 31, 2007HME News Staff

WASHINGTON - The 36-month cap on Medicare oxygen reimbursement could mean $710 million in cuts in 2009 and $855 million in cuts in 2010--a nearly 19% reduction in the reimbursement rate, according to a July report from Avalere Health, an advisory company focused on healthcare business strategy and public policy. The Council for Quality Respiratory Care (CQRC), a Washington, D.C.-based group of home oxygen therapy providers and manufacturers, commissioned the report. The cuts will hit beneficiaries...

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Purchase option faces peril

August 31, 2007HME News Staff

WASHINGTON - The rehab industry in late July tried but failed to "knock out" a provision that would eliminate the first-month purchase option for power wheelchairs. The House of Representatives passed a bill Aug. 1 that eliminates the option as part of an effort to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). At press time in early August, however, the industry was lobbying members of the Senate to eliminate the provision in conference. Last year, a group of senators, including...

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Group hires new leader

August 31, 2007HME News Staff

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Kentucky Medical Equipment Suppliers Association (KMESA) lost its long-time executive director, Tom Underwood, this spring but hired a replacement with loads of HME experience. Judy Bunn, who also serves as executive director of the Association of Indiana Home Medical Equipment Services, replaced Underwood in July. "There were a number of local applicants with association management experience, but no industry experience," said KMESA board member Alan Grogan. "But given the...

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Collecting co-pays rewards Bargmann

August 31, 2007HME News Staff

The squeamishness that many HMEs experience when tackling the ticklish job of collecting Medicare's 20% co-payment has paid off big-time for Bargmann Management and HCS. In late June, the Greater Akron (Ohio) Chamber of Commerce named Bargmann its 2007 New and Emerging Business of the Year. The company formed in 2003 and generates 85% of its business helping providers collect beneficiary co-pays. At the end of 2006, the company employed 20 associates. It now employs 65 and expects to double that...

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Four horsemen of HME

August 31, 2007HME News Staff

As 2007 progresses, the home medical equipment industry faces its own version of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Biblical horsemen are pestilence, war, famine and death; our industry faces national competitive bidding, the oxygen cap, uncertainties surrounding complex rehab and, consequently, the likely elimination of many small to mid-sized independent providers. Many in the industry denied that the apocalypse was real or that it would affect them. We now understand this thought process...

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Loss leaders draw blood both ways

August 31, 2007HME News Staff

Reductions in reimbursement driven by such initiatives as competitive bidding are likely to turn "loss leaders" into real losers as suppliers seek redress in the new business climate, according to a recent HME NewsPoll. Suppliers intend to discard select low-margin product lines, as well as low-margin patients; seek additional, more profitable product lines; alter vendor relations; cut employees and revisit the financial wisdom of adding on costly initiatives such as accreditation. The knee-jerk...

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A few bumps in the road

August 31, 2007HME News Staff

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Cigna Government Services slipped into its role as the new Jurisdiction C Medicare Administrative Contractor July 1, and, so far, the transition has gone as well as expected, say sources. "I think Cigna has tried to anticipate what the needs and issues were going to be," said Andrea Stark, a Medicare consultant with MiraVista. "In areas where they were deficient, they've rallied resources." Cigna was awarded the contract after a protracted battle with former MAC Palmetto (See...

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