A clue about consolidation?

Each year, we publish a State of the Industry Report full of data that gives you a snapshot of the industry from year to year.

(Go here to download last year's report.)

Well, the data for this year's report is starting to trickle in, and just today I received data from CMS on the number of DMEPOS suppliers that bill Medicare in these five categories: less than $300,000 per year; $300,000 to $1 million; $1 million to $3 million; $3 million to $10 million; and more than $10 million.

The number of providers that bill Medicare less than $300,000 a year continues to make up the lion's share of providers: 90,479. The rest of the data:

5,356 providers bill $300,000 to $1 million

1,211 $1 million to $3 million

228 $3 million to $10 million

63 more than $10 million

For the most part, in the past few years, the number of providers billing Medicare in each category decreased except for providers that bill more than $10 million. They've gone from 43 in 2007 to 46 in 2008 to 54 in 2009. 2010 is no different with 63 providers.

And for the most part, in the past few years, the number of providers that bill Medicare less than $300,000 has represented the biggest decline: 103,227 in 2007 to 95,584 in 2008 to 93,777 in 2009. Again, 2010 is no different with 90,479 providers.

What is a departure from previous years: The providers that bill between $300,000 and $10 million have declined only slightly or increased. The number of providers that billed Medicare $300,000 to $1 million in 2009 was 5,393. In 2010? 5,356. The number of providers that billed Medicare $1 million to $3 million in 2009 was 1,156. In 2010? 1,211. The number of providers that billed Medicare $3 million to $10 million in 2009 was 220. In 2010? 228.

I don't know about you, but I'm going to chew on this over the weekend. Let me know what you think on Monday.

Liz Beaulieu