Test your industry knowledge: Take the HME News challenge

I mentioned a while ago that I just received a fresh batch of DME data from CMS. As I was looking at this data, I thought it would be kind of fun to put together a little test. So here you go. Test your knowledge. The answers are at the bottom, but don't look!

1. If you expect to be able to battle competitive bidding and come out the other side, your company's EBITDA should be what?
a. 50%   b. 12%   c. 8%   e. 25%

2. How many Medicare beneficiaries have 3 or more chronic conditions?
a. 13%  b.7%  c. 47%  d.25%

3. How many HME providers in the United States received Medicare reimbursement of $10 million a year or more in 2009?
a. 9     b. 1066    c. 539    d. 54

4. Medicare reimbursement for intermittent urinary catheters (A4351)  changed by how much in 2009 compared to 2008?
a. 105%   b. -23%   c. 14.7%    d. 39.28%

5. Medicare reimbursement for CPAP (E0601) changed by how much in 2009 compared to 2008?
a. -13%   b. -16%    c. 11%    d. 2%

6 Which company received more reimbursement from Medicare in 2009?
a. Liberty Medical    b. Apria

7. How much reimbursement did Hoveround receive from Medicare in 2009?
a. $64M   b. 102M    c. 38M    D. 98M

8 Hospital in-patient services will vacuum up how much of Medicare's $509 billion budget this year?
a. 10%   b. 27%   c. 23%   d. 44%

9. Home care services account for how much of Medicare's 2010 budget?

a. 8%    b. 4%    c. 11%    d. 2%

10. What percentage of Medicare beneficiaries are 85+?
a. 12%    b. 21%    c. 8%   d. 4%

Answers:

1. e   2. c      3. d     4. a     5. b    6. Liberty ($417M to $369M)   7. a    8. b   9. b   10. a

Grading:

10 correct: You are on your way or have arrived

8-9 correct: You've got promise

6-7 correct: You've got a fighting chance

4-5 correct: You need to work harder

3 or fewer correct: Who cares? It's just a stupid game HME News made up.

Mike Moran