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Archive: June 2009


On the Editor's Desk

First-month purchase option

June 30, 2009Liz Beaulieu, Editor

This just in, courtesy of an e-mail blast yesterday from NRRTS: It's rumored that, to help pay for healthcare reform, the Senate Finance Committee, like the House Ways and Means Committee, will propose eliminating the first-month purchase option for power wheelchairs. But the Senate Finance Committee may exclude Group 3 power wheelchairs. Officially, members of the Senate Finance Committee left Capitol Hill last week for their July 4th recess without releasing their draft bill. In the meantime,...

Finance Committee, first-month purchase option, National Registry of Rehabilitation Technology Suppliers (NRRTS), On The Editor's Desk, Ways and Means Committee


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Providers 'friend' Facebook

June 30, 2009HME News Staff

FACEBOOK--Bryan Collins is a fourth generation HME provider with 21st century ideas for promoting the family business. One of those ideas: Facebook. “It's free marketing and it's a way to promote new product lines or specials,” said Collins, vice president of sales and marketing for Fairfield, Conn.-based Collins Medical Equipment. For the uninitiated, Facebook is a free social networking site that has grown to include 150 million profiles since its launch in 2004. Users simply set up...

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Compliance programs: 'A great way to raise the bar'

June 30, 2009HME News Staff

WASHINGTON - The draft healthcare reform plan recently released by the House of Representatives isn't all bad, industry stakeholders say. To help reduce fraud and abuse, it would require HME providers to have compliance programs. "This would be a great way to raise the bar for the industry," said Georgie Blackburn, vice president of government relations and legislative affairs for Tarentum, Pa.-based Blackburn's, which implemented a compliance program 10 years ago. "Why would business owners, in...

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'Scooters have always been appealing to the cash-paying customer'

June 30, 2009HME News Staff

There's no room for pessimism in the scooter market these days. Despite negativity toward Medicare, the retail market for scooters is encouraging positive signs, manufacturers contend. “Scooters have always been appealing to the cash-paying customer,” said Cy Corgan, national sales director, retail mobility, for Exeter, Pa.-based Pride Mobility Products. “Many able-bodied individuals purchase scooters to allow them more freedom on a daily basis and increase their level of independence....

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'Different tone'

June 30, 2009HME News Staff

BALTIMORE--The HME industry breathed a sigh of relief in June when CMS officials said they had no plans to implement national competitive bidding until January 2011. But the agency still intends to open the bidding window this fall, industry stakeholders are quick to point out. “We can't be lulled into a false sense of security,” said Cara Bachenheimer, senior vice president of government relations for Invacare. “Competitive bidding is very much alive and three-dimensional. So it's...

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Cost savings drive growth

June 30, 2009HME News Staff

MURRYSVILLE, Pa.-It's no secret why more and more patients who require prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) are being transferred to the home. It makes dollars and sense. The most expensive setting for PMV is an acute care hospital at $6,000 a day. That's followed by long term acute care, $2,000 a day; skilled nursing facility, $450 to $750 a day; and finally home care, where costs vary, depending on the need for home nursing, said Christine Cunningham, a respiratory therapist with 19 years of...

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Policy reduces coverage by 50%

June 30, 2009HME News Staff

WASHINGTON--The rehab industry has decided not to take CMS's new billing policy for wheelchair repairs lying down. AAHomecare's Rehab and Assistive Technology Council (RATC) sent a strongly worded letter to the DME MAC medical directors in May, requesting that they drop the policy. The council's argument: The policy violates longstanding Medicare rules. “What they've done is quite unprecedented,” said Tim Pederson, co-chairman of the RATC and CEO of WestMed Rehab in Rapid City, S.D. Under...

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Interact with retail customers

June 30, 2009HME News Staff

DELRAY BEACH, Fla.--Diabco Healthcare Software Solutions has taken an existing product and given it a new twist to help HME providers increase cash sales. For a little more than a year, the company has offered VoiceGuide-IVR. The automated phone system calls patients who regularly use medical supplies, reminding them that it's time for a reorder and then, with the patient's say-so, takes the order. This spring, Diabco began promoting the system to the HME industry's growing retail sector. “You...

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'It could have been worse'

June 30, 2009HME News Staff

OLYMPIA, Wash.--Starting Aug. 1, Washington state Medicaid will no longer pay for bath safety equipment and compression stockings, and it will reduce the amount of incontinence supplies it pays for from 240 diapers per month to 200. Tom Coogan, immediate past president of the Pacific Association for Medical Equipment Services (PAMES), acknowledges that the cuts will sting, but they help to protect more vulnerable product categories like complex power wheelchairs. “Although we're discouraged,...

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Rehab rundown: Industry wins some, loses some

June 30, 2009HME News Staff

WASHINGTON - The rehab industry scored a swift victory June 18, when the DME MAC medical directors agreed to tweak the local coverage determination (LCD) for wheelchair seating. U.S. Rehab's Peggy Walker sent the medical directors a packet of information, including case studies, in May, asking them to add certain diagnoses to the list of conditions that qualify patients for skin protection cushions, and seat and back cushions. About six weeks later, the medical directors responded to Walker, telling...

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