Archive: May 2008
SeQual expands
May 31, 2008HME News Staff
SAN DIEGO--SeQual Technologies opened a European service and distribution center in Eindhoven, Netherlands, in April. According to the company: “The European market is growing rapidly and a centralized location is necessary to improve customer service and technical support.” SeQual manufactures the Eclipse personal ambulatory oxygen system.
U.S. Rehab adds clinical emphasis
May 31, 2008HME News Staff
WATERLOO, Iowa--U.S. Rehab, a division of The VGM Group, has appointed Elizabeth Cole, a physical therapist, to the new position of director of clinical rehab services. Most recently, Cole was a senior consultant with The Orion Group in Denver, where she provided reimbursement and clinical consulting services to equipment providers and clinicians. Cole is a member of RESNA, an active participant of The Clinician Task Force and a friend of NRRTS.
Round 2 bids: ˜We don't want the winner's curse'
May 31, 2008HME News Staff
Will the pricing for Round 1 of national competitive bidding influence bid amounts for Round 2? Hopefully, not much, say providers located in the Round 2 competitive bidding areas (CBAs).
“Bidding in Round 1 was crazy and irresponsible, and bidding in Round 2 needs to be realistic and responsible, even if it means losing a bid,” said Todd Tyson, president of Hi Tech Homecare in Marietta, Ga., one of the 70 Round 2 CBAs. “We don't want the winner's curse.”
Like most...
Providers pull together
May 31, 2008HME News Staff
WASHINGTON--Rehab providers turned out in full force in April, making 4,451 calls and more than 200 visits to legislators to lobby for a bill that would exclude complex rehab from national competitive bidding.
It didn't really hit rehab providers just how bad things would be under competitive bidding until they found out in March that CMS planned to reduce reimbursement for complex rehab by 15% in Round 1 of the program, industry sources said.
“I am so happy to see that we're finally pulling...
Contract providers gear up for July 1
May 31, 2008HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine--With contracts for Round 1 bid winners signed, the ramp-up process has begun full-force.
“We've been interviewing people left and right,” said Chris Rice, director or marketing for Riverside, Calif.-based Diamond Respiratory Care.
“We're adding on trucks, products, service.”
The process began before the provider's winning bids were submitted. Rice worked from a basic blueprint to estimate what Diamond would need to successfully service a contract but admits...
Medicaid grasps at NCB reimbursement
May 31, 2008HME News Staff
COLUMBUS, Ohio--It took Ohio Medicaid less than a week to pick up on national competitive bidding reimbursement.
On March 24, three days after CMS released competitive bidding reimbursement, Ohio Medicaid proposed paying providers about $105 per month for oxygen concentrators, about 80% of $130, the reimbursement set for Cincinnati, one of the Round 1 areas.
“We've talked about the trickle down effect of competitive bidding, but it was scary how fast this happened,” said Johnny Miller,...
Not so fast, Stark says
May 31, 2008HME News Staff
WASHINGTON--Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., pledged at a May 6 hearing to work with the home medical equipment industry to repeal national competitive bidding, a program he described as “somewhere between flawed and lousy.” But Stark, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee's health subcommittee, made it clear to industry representatives that it would come at a cost.
“Is your industry prepared to have their fees adjusted downward to the extent of $6 billion over five years if we get...
Scoundrels and gunslingers
May 31, 2008HME News Staff
Have you seen “Deadwood,” the critically acclaimed HBO show named after a South Dakota boomtown in the 1870s? The show's characters raise swearing to a high art, and a few are as likely to cut your throat as a deck of cards.
It's a world full of drunks (Calamity Jane), prostitutes (Trixie), gunslingers (Wild Bill Hickok), miners, Indians, government officials, robber barons (George Hearst) a prim-and-proper school teacher, honest shopkeepers (Sol Star), henchmen, scoundrels (Al Swearengen),...
Bill gains Senate support
May 31, 2008HME News Staff
WASHINGTON--Three senators introduced a bipartisan bill April 29 that would carve out complex rehab and assistive technology from national competitive bidding, paving the way, industry sources hope, for it to be attached to a Medicare bill now in the works.
“There might be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” said Jim Greatorex, president of Black Bear Medical in Portland, Maine, who lobbied Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, to sponsor the bill at AAHomecare's congressional fly-in in...
These guys must be doing something right
May 31, 2008HME News Staff
Mike Laky knows what HME providers want from their sales reps, and he should. Prior to starting his independent rep firm 10 years ago with partner David Monceaux, Laky operated his own rehab company. Nothing bugged him more than a rep who did not return phone calls promptly.
“When I was a provider, we weren't the biggest player in the field, but we weren't the smallest,” he said recently. “But I couldn't get a rep to call me back. That always bothered me. If you don't call providers...