Archive: September 2007
Provider's goal: 'Do well by doing good'
September 30, 2007HME News Staff
BROOKLYN, N.Y. - After attracting about 2,000 applicants for a 2007 college scholarship worth $500, 1800Wheelchair expanded its philanthropic activities this year to include two grants for Web sites dedicated to mobility issues.
Earlier this summer, 1800Wheelchair, an online provider of mobility equipment, awarded the grants, worth up to $100,000 over the next 10 years, to paralinks.net and rollingpix.blogspot.com.
"The overriding idea is that we want to do well by doing good," said Joseph Piekarski,...
Sunrise consolidates, recalls
September 30, 2007HME News Staff
PLAINFIELD, Ind. - Sunrise plans to consolidate its North American operations in Plainfield, Ind., a move that will create 70 new jobs, the company announced Aug. 10.
The company will close its manufacturing facility in Memphis, Tenn., and relocate its Florida- and Massachusetts-based engineering and assembly operations to a new 180,000-square-foot facility in Plainfield.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. has offered the company up to $250,000 in performance-based tax credits and $36,000 in...
The good, the bad and the surety bond
September 30, 2007HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - CMS should not make providers with good track records obtain surety bonds, says AAHomecare.
Instead, the agency should require only providers who pose a risk to get a $65,000 surety bond for each of their national provider identification numbers (NPI).
Congress mandated the surety bond requirement in The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA). CMS issued a proposed rule in 1998, but never finalized it. The agency initiated a new rulemaking proceeding in August.
AAHomecare said the new...
Push for industry bills continues
September 30, 2007HME News Staff
Providers and other stakeholders continued to call and meet with Washington lawmakers during the August recess, asking them to support several industry-related bills and fight two new provisions.
The industry stumped for bills to lessen the blow of national competitive bidding (H.R. 1845 and S. 1428), eliminate the 36-month cap on home oxygen reimbursement (H.R. 621 and S. 1484) and carve out complex rehab from competitive bidding (H.R. 2231). Additionally, it fought a bill drafted by the U.S. House...
Providers lament 'strange approach' to audits
September 30, 2007HME News Staff
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A recent Medicaid audit has the provider community here questioning the state's auditing methods and its claims of error rates as high 90%.
The audit of about 50 oxygen providers was conducted in 2005, but the state didn't publish results until July.
"Patients were horrified; they thought the companies were under investigation," said John Shirvinksy, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers (PAMS). "The (auditors) were ex-law enforcement...
Audits 'picking off' providers
September 30, 2007HME News Staff
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Rehab providers in California plan to band together to fight Medicaid's charges that they have violated an obscure upper billing limit rule.
In early September, provider Tom Lambert had collected the names of about 20 providers audited for billing more than cost-plus 100% for wheelchairs, namely K0011s. They argue that the state failed to educate them on the rule, which it implemented four years ago to cut down on fraud and abuse.
"They had to be aware there was a major problem,"...
Deadline looms for ATPs
September 30, 2007HME News Staff
Industry sources fear not enough therapists seek to become RESNA-certified ATPs, a situation that could leave rehab providers and beneficiaries in the lurch come spring
Mark Schmeler, a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, reports "lukewarm" participation for the review courses and Webinars he offers therapists preparing to take the ATP exam. Schmeler pointed out that it takes months to become certified--from studying to registering to receiving test results.
"It's like applying for college--you...
Walker wants to bring excitement back
September 30, 2007HME News Staff
ATLANTA - When NRRTS was formed, Weesie Walker remembers the buzz surrounding the industry. "I was so excited that I finally belonged to something that gave me some validity," said Walker, the organization's new president and a branch manager for National Seating & Mobility in Atlanta. During her two-year term as president, Walker wants to regain that sense of excitement. "The changes to the industry the past few years have been scary, but, in a way, it's exciting," she said. "There's a lot of opportunity."...
Are some accreditors cutting corners?
September 30, 2007HME News Staff
MIAMI - It looks like there could be some more funny business going on in south Florida's hotbed of DME fraud and abuse. A number of industry watchers have heard of providers there being surveyed and approved for accreditation in as little as 20 to 40 minutes.
A typical survey should take four to eight hours for a single location and sometimes longer, say accreditation officials. But with providers scrambling to become accredited by Oct. 31--the deadline set by CMS for those who want to participate...
Are we near the 'tipping point' for HME?
September 30, 2007HME News Staff
Malcolm Gladwell compared his book, "The Tipping Point," to the biography of an idea--the idea that every successful trend, idea, program, product or accomplishment had an exact moment in time when it passed the point where it might well fail and moved on instead to become accepted, successful and seemingly inevitable. Up to that "tipping point" in time, it could have gone either way. Gladwell compares an evolving idea or plan as a sort of epidemic. It can simply peter out or, if it is strong enough...