I can't feel my fingers

Here in Maine we've been spoiled by warmer fall weather. Until yesterday. The temp never got above 50 degrees and it dipped into the 20s overnight.

I reluctantly turned on the heat. (We usually wait until Halloween).

This morning, a thick layer of frost on my car windshield awaited me.

I arrived at HME News world headquarters only to find we had no heat. (It's also not unheard of for the AC to conk out when it's hot. We are, after all, located in an old fish cannery. It's a tricky building).

While one of my wingmates had her husband bring us in some heaters from just up the road, it's pretty chilly in here today.

What does this all mean? I am avoiding checking my blood sugar unless absolutely necessary. They say you can't get blood from a stone. Well, it's just as hard to get it from an icy digit.

With all the damage Medicare has done to the diabetes market, I haven't written as much as usual about what's happening in this space. So, I plan to call around and see what's up.

Our most recent update to the HME Databank showed some changes to the Top 10 diabetes providers for Medicare. To no one's surprise, Arriva is at the top of the heap, billing for nearly 600k patients in 2014. Its next nearest competitor, All American Medical Supplies, billed less than half that, submitting claims for just over 162K beneficiaries. I may give them a call and see who they are.

I also can't help but wonder how the market shakes out with the next round of bidding for the national mail order program (Is it Round 2 rebid? Round 1 2017 national mail order? deja vu?).

If you've got something diabetes related you think I should be hearing about, or anything else for that matter, you know I always want to hear about it. Give me a call, shoot me an email or drop by the HME News Booth at Medtrade on Thursday, where I'll be loitering.

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