Archive: January 2003
Airlines want out of O2 biz
January 31, 2003HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - The airlines appear committed to being out of the travel oxygen business within the next two to five years, and the reason's simple:
“Moving tanks around is exactly what they don't do,” said Phil Porte, executive director of the National Home Oxygen Patients Association. “It's complicated. Just ask Apria and Lincare.”
Many larger airlines (Delta, American, Continental, for example) provide oxygen to patients who need it, but charge $75 to $150 per leg of the...
Medicare HMOs up and down
January 31, 2003HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - If the momentum to privatize the Medicare program accelerates under the leadership of incoming Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), HME providers see advantages and disadvantages to moving off the fee schedule and into the hands of private payers.
The first, most obvious benefit, say many, is a reduction in the administrative burden. “I can take less money if you can reduce my work,” said Jim Clark, president of Clark Respiratory and Medical Supply in Catskill, N.Y....
Rehab providers donate time, money to consumer group cause
January 31, 2003HME News Staff
PHILADELPHIA - The HME industry has been touting the importance of involving consumers in its various causes, and now it's taking steps to return the favor.
Rehab providers and manufacturers are donating their time and money to a two-week march sponsored by ADAPT, the consumer group that drafted the Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act (MiCASSA). The act, which has been introduced in Congress, would give people with disabilities a choice of where and how they receive services.
Dave...
Vendors list Do’s & Don’ts for optimizing scooter sales
January 31, 2003HME News Staff
When it comes to energizing scooter sales, mobility dealers don't need to try anything radical, manufacturers say. All it takes is a fresh perspective on procedures already in place.
By thoroughly scrutinizing their advertising plans, marketing strategies and sales techniques, mobility manufacturers say, dealers can boost their scooter business while simultaneously improving other important areas, such as customer relations. At the same time, vendors caution dealers against adhering to outmoded...
Coming into their own
January 31, 2003HME News Staff
NRRTS and its members mark 10-year anniversary
LARGO VISTA, Texas - The National Registry of Rehabilitation Technology Suppliers (NRRTS) marks its 10-year anniversary this year, and the organization and its members are finally “coming into their own,” says President Dave Kruse. “After years and years, we're starting to get recognized as professionals,” he said. Much of that has to do with a decision by the Georgia Medicaid program to require that providers fitting custom...
A wayward arsenal of loose cannons
January 31, 2003HME News Staff
Boosters of the DMEPOS competitive bidding plan have significant firepower on their side. They can point to a persuasive report from the Congressional Budget Office that shows competitive bidding will save more than $7 billion over 10 years. They can invoke studies from Polk County and San Antonio that show Medicare beneficiaries are by and large satisfied with the service they're getting under competitive bidding. But as President Bush and Senate Majority Leader Frist, who has identified health...
Profits beyond their wildest dreams
January 31, 2003HME News Staff
LYNBROOK, N.Y. - Early last year Ed Walsh and Seth Lane bet that if they started a company that provided only adult and pediatric respiratory services, referral sources would welcome them with open arms. They never thought that those open arms would close into an affectionate bear hug.
“When we started, our original goal was to break $500,000 for the year,” said Walsh, who like Lane has 25 years in the HME industry, but never as an owner. “Breaking even would be fine. We never...
CMS to cover hyperbaric oxygen therapy for diabetics
January 31, 2003HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - CMS announced in a December program memo that it would cover hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) for the treatment of diabetic wounds beginning April 1.
According to the memo, CMS will cover HBO for the treatment of diabetic wounds of the lower extremities in patients who meet three criteria: The patient has type I or type II diabetes and a lower extremity wound that's due to diabetes; the patient has a wound classified as Wagner grade III or higher; and the patient has failed an adequate...
Senate opposition to comp. bidding builds
January 31, 2003HME News Staff
ELYRIA, Ohio - While Trent Lott's now infamous birthday remarks reconfigured the look and the priorities of the Senate leadership last month, a welling of Senatorial interest in competitive bidding is giving the industry new grounds for hope.
In a Dec. 6 letter to Heartland Medical Equipment's Sara Kirchoff, Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo.) agreed that the initiation of a competitive bidding program for DME is premature.
“It is unwise to rush to implement a national program in light of the fact...
Payers, providers restructure home
January 31, 2003HME News Staff
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Payers are beginning to restructure their contracts with providers to comply with new standardized home infusion codes under HIPAA, and it's sometimes a stressful affair, industry sources say.
Payers have to start using the new codes in eight months, but they're beginning to phase them in now, so their businesses won't come to a grinding halt in October, according to Lorrie Kline Kaplan, executive director of the National Home Infusion Association.
“There almost isn't a...