Archive: February 2017
VirtuOx keeps track with VirtuTrack
February 28, 2017HME News Staff
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. - VirtuOx, a home respiratory diagnostic provider, has released a device that allows HME providers to track their equipment in the patient's home. VirtuTrack attaches to equipment and automatically sends data daily to VirtuOx, allowing providers to monitor whether or not it is plugged in and turned on. “With VirtuTrack, you will be able to monitor patient compliance to any medical device, which can improve health outcomes, reduce hospital readmissions and eliminate the...
Senators in Minnesota seek to soften blow of upcoming Medicaid cut
February 28, 2017HME News Staff
SAINT PAUL, Minn. - Two senators in the Minnesota state legislature have introduced a bill to address a provision in the 21st Century Cures Act that would limit the federal portion of Medicaid reimbursement for HME to competitive bidding-influenced Medicare reimbursement starting in 2018. The bill, introduced by Sens. Jim Abeler and Greg Clausen and still in draft form, reads: “Effective for services provided on or after January 1, 2018, the commissioner shall make supplemental payments to...
Hospice Cloud bulks up business with Genesis Healthcare
February 28, 2017HME News Staff
ATLANTA and RICHLAND HILLS, Texas - Genesis Healthcare Services and Hospice Cloud, two providers of HME to hospice organizations, have merged, company officials announced Feb. 23.
The acquisition of Atlanta-based Genesis Healthcare helps Richland Hills, Texas-based Hospice Cloud, which owns and operates 60 service centers and has partnerships with more than 200 HME providers, maintain its position as a “market leader” providing HME for the hospice industry.
“The addition of...
Better to swim with the sharks
February 28, 2017Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
It's a chilly today, here in Las Vegas, but here's hoping things warm up with the official start of Medtrade Spring '17 this morning.
I actually flew into Vegas on Saturday. I figured if I had to spend a whole day crammed onto a plane, anyway, I might as well take an extra today to enjoy some sun and relative warmth—two things that are often in limited supply in our neck of the woods.
On Sunday morning, before all the vacationing families could descend on the Shark Reef Aquarium (it's just...
Medforce launches e-signature tool
February 28, 2017HME News Staff
SUFFERN, N.Y. - Medforce Technologies has launched an electronic signature tool built specifically for the healthcare industry. SignCenter allows providers to “dictate the signing experience,” Medforce says, by determining where and when a document can be signed. It allows signatures to be captured remotely or in-person, and to be executed using a keyboard, mouse or touch screen from any web-enabled device. “Most providers we talk to are still printing out forms for signature and...
Brightree helps providers get paid
February 28, 2017HME News Staff
ATLANTA - Brightree has released an app that gives HME providers a quick way to process patient payments through smartphones or tablets anywhere in real time. The Brightree Patient Collections GetPaidHME app, which runs on Apple and Android devices, allows users to scan a sales order directly from a delivery ticket. From there, the patient is added to the delivery queue, and sales order data, including recipient and payment information, is integrated into the app, eliminating the need for paper invoices....
Linde-Praxair: Will merger have impact on HME?
February 24, 2017Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
MUNICH and DANBURY, Conn. - Although industrial gas giant Linde continues to dip its toe in the waters of home care, its planned merger with Praxair likely won't have a noticeable effect on the HME industry, say M&A analysts.Linde and Praxair in December announced plans to merge, creating a combined company with revenues of about $30 billion. Linde is currently the No. 2 industrial gas company in the world and Praxair is No. 3.“I don't think we'll see much impact from it at all,” said...
Aeroflow launches petition
February 24, 2017Kelly Bothum
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - There's been plenty of discussion recently about what the repeal of the Affordable Care Act could mean for healthcare consumers, but Aeroflow Healthcare is doing more than just talking.The DME provider has launched an online petition to keep breastfeeding support—mandated since 2010 through the ACA—as a women's preventive benefit.In less than three weeks, the petition garnered more than 11,300 signatures. For Aeroflow, which operates a Mom & Baby division specializing...
Is bariatric DME becoming the new normal?
February 24, 2017John Andrews
There is no consensus among manufacturers about whether bariatrics should continue to be its own category or whether it should be incorporated into other HME segments. While some are including bariatric versions of mobility, bath safety, support surfaces and aids to daily living within those product portfolios, others continue to position bariatric models in their own category.
Whether bariatrics becomes more mainstream remains to be seen, though it appears that sales of bariatric versions are...
New RAC posts new reviews
February 24, 2017HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - Performant Recovery, the new national recovery audit contractor (RAC) for DMEPOS and home health/hospice, has posted seven new reviews on its workload page, according to AAHomecare. They are: complex medical necessity chest wall oscillation devices; complex medical necessity tracheotomy suction catheters, suction pumps, catheters and other related supplies and equipment; automated nebulizers not in accordance with billing requirements; automated DME billed while inpatient; complex review...