Briefs

RATC debuts new Web site ALEXANDRIA, Va. - AAHomecare's Rehab and Assistive Technology Council debuted a new “information driven” Web site in September that includes the latest news of interest to rehab providers. The site's address is www.ratc-aahomecare.org. The site allows RATC members and non-members to add their names to a list-serve and receive via email and receive Medicare updates and other information pertinent to their business when it happens, said RATC Chairman Matthew Burke. Links to JCAHO, the MED Group and other relevant sites are also included. On the site's members-only section, RATC will post documents and other articles-in-progress rather than emailing them out. “If you email something out, you have no idea where it will end up,” Burke said. “This way, we're pretty sure the group will only see it, unless someone gives out their password.” NEMED says ‘thanks' to CMS gadfly REDDING, Calif. - Ever since he won a California district court case that ruled Medicare can't request physician notes and other information beyond the CMN to prove medical necessity, Tom Lambert has become an industry folk hero. In September, the owner of Maximum Comfort got a nice pat on the back when the New England Medical Equipment Dealers Association provided airfare and lodging to have him come speak at the group's quarterly meeting in Nashua, N.H. “Here's a guy who stood up to CMS,” said Dick Wilcox, past NEMED president and CEO of Wilcox Pharmacy in Rutland, Vt. “This is a guy like all of us, not some multi-national multi-billion dollar company. It's an amazing story. We wanted to hear it first hand and say thanks.” Provider donates $1 million to hospital FT. OGLETHORPE, Ga. - Mike and Leila Fuller, who started Fuller Rehabilitation-Independent Living Aids in the attic of their house in 1988, have donated $1 million to Hutchinson Medical Center. The hospital has used the money to create the Fuller Center for Cancer Care, scheduled to open Nov. 2.