Archive: March 2011
Another round of direct-to-consumer conversations
March 31, 2011Liz Beaulieu, Editor
These two links have lit up the NRRTS listerv for the past week:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Comfort-Company-Vector-Cushion-with-Vicair-Technology/15205425?adid=bzv_fb_rev%3E%20shr_001
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Karman-Healthcare-Stand-Up-Power-Wheelchair/132250
The links were distributed on Monday and since then providers have been posting comments about how manufacturers shouldn't be selling complex rehab products to online companies who sell direct to consumers (in this case Walmart...
Mediware expands HME presence
March 31, 2011HME News Staff
LENEXA, Kan. - Mediware plans to acquire the assets of CareCentric's home medical equipment, home health and home infusion software businesses, it announced March 31.
As a result of the deal, Mediware, which has more of a presence in the software market for acute care, will pick up more than 300 new customers and related products, services and contracts.
“With the additional customers, Mediware software will now support more than 700 sites delivering home infusion, home medical equipment,...
LMI: 'We're back'
March 30, 2011Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. - Landauer Metropolitan Inc. (LMI) is back on the acquisition trail. In March, it snapped up Buffalo, N.Y.-based Kaba Healthcare and it has no plans to stop there.
"The owners didn't understand our space and wanted out," said CEO Lou Rocco. "We got a good value."
Kaba Healthcare, a subsidiary of Woodmark Healthcare Enterprises, a network of skilled nursing facilities, has about $2 million in annual revenues.
It's the first buy for LMI since a buying spree in 2009, when the provider...
Graymark Healthcare's earnings up
March 29, 2011HME News Staff
OKLAHOMA CITY - It looks like Graymark Healthcare's renewed focus on sleep is paying off: Revenues increased 30% in 2010, the provider reported March 28.
Revenues for the year ended Dec. 31, 2010 were $22.8 million up from $17.6 million in 2009. The increase is attributed to, among other things, added revenues from Graymark's acquisitions of Somni sleep centers in 2009.
Revenues from the company's sleep diagnostic business increased 27%, to $17.2 million in 2010, compared to $13.5 million in 2009....
How do you like them apples?
March 29, 2011Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
Proving the old adage that the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree, a Miami (again) mother and her two daughters have been charged with health care fraud, according to an article on miamiherald.com. Isabel Torres, 48, was also charged with identity theft, while her daughters, Samantha Carta, 21 and Natasha Miranda, 24, were each charged with making a false statement to law enforcement.
The three women and other family members submitted more than $12 million in fraudulent Medicare claims,...
Game’s changing for home oxygen
March 28, 2011Liz Beaulieu, Editor
ORLANDO - Much has been made of the Medicare reimbursement (or the increasing lack thereof) for home oxygen therapy. But what about the benefits of this therapy, when it's done right? Shouldn't physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists be focusing on that? And if they do, won't reimbursement take care of itself?
Bob McCoy thinks so. Here's what McCoy, a respiratory therapist and the managing director of Valley Inspired Products, had to say about this “game-changing” conversation.
HME...
Think managed care is the solution?
March 25, 2011Liz Beaulieu, Editor
Industry consultant Alison Cherney says “everyone wants to get into managed care” these days.
“They're saying, 'I'm in a competitive bidding area and I lost Medicare, what do I do now?'” said Cherney, president of Cherney & Associates in Brentwood, Tenn. “They think managed care looks attractive, but they can't, after all these years of hating it, just turn around and get a contract. It's not easy and it takes awhile.”
Cherney says...
HME News TV: A new referral source
March 24, 2011Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
YARMOUTH, Maine - There's a new breed of physicians making rounds--quite literally--and HME providers should take notice, industry consultant Ty Bello told HME News TV recently.
Hospitalists treat patients only in the hospital, doing rounds and overseeing their general medical care, said Bello, president of Team@Work in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Hospitalists are well placed to make referrals--"right in the middle of discharge planners, case managers or respiratory departments," said Bello. The trick, he...
Letters to the editor: Prior authorizations: 'A simple fix'
March 24, 2011HME News Staff
In "Who's on the hook for wheelchair repairs," HME News, March 2011, it is mentioned that Medicare should go to a prior authorization vs. prepayment review. This is a question I have asked for years.
On every insurance that we carry, before we deliver any item it gets a prior authorization except for Medicare. It seems by doing this step it would eliminate much of the fraud and abuse of the Medicare system.
All of the HMOs we work with require a prior authorization before delivery on items that...
E-commerce
March 24, 2011Jennifer Keirn
Joseph Gaskins never could have imagined what American Orthopedic Services might become when he founded it in 1957 in Pontiac, Mich.
Now called Aleva Health, the company still occupies the same storefront it has for 40 years and is still owned by the Gaskins family, with grandson Derek as president.
But a short distance away in Rochester Hills, Derek Gaskins also runs Aleva's e-commerce division, which owns such sites as ForYourLegs.com, HealthyLegs.com and SportSocks.com.
"The key was finding...