Archive: April 2004
Docs order by e-mail
April 30, 2004HME News Staff
ATHENS, Tenn. - The same technology that lets you order a quick burger and fries as you make the turn on a golf course has found a home in a palm device that lets referral sources order DME from their office.
A convalescent referral source places an order for durable medical equipment.
Instead of leaving pamphlets and prescription pads with the doc, Jaysec Technologies wants you to leave behind an IOS (Ideal Ordering System). When a referral source needs DME for a patient, he'll drill through IOS...
Entral nutrition
April 30, 2004HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - Medicare may be overpaying for Category I enteral nutrition formulas by 70% to 115%, according to an OIG study that recommends CMS use its inherent reasonableness authority to bring payments in line with provider costs.
The OIG reported that median contract prices for the formulas ranged from $.28 to $.36 per unit (1 unit = 100 calories) in 2001. The majority - 75% - of those prices fell below $.42 per unit, while Medicare's payment for the formula was $.61.
Medicare could have saved...
Cash is king
April 30, 2004HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine - DME's retail environment has languished over the past 10 years with the rise and fall of the home health superstores and the move toward consolidation, but some providers are testing the big box waters again and opening locations within the world's retail king, Wal-Mart.
Hutchinson Medical of Salem, Massachusetts was the first to take the plunge in October when it opened two Wal-Mart locations in Epping, New Hampshire and Waterford, Connecticut.
The Scooter Store and Apria quickly...
Sleep
April 30, 2004HME News Staff
ORLANDO, Fla. - Rotech created a buzz among respiratory providers recently when it announced a controversial drop-ship CPAP program that some feel could compromise patient care.
While dropshipping is nothing new, especially with canes, walkers, medical supplies and blood pressure monitors, mailing CPAP units and a training video to patients raised a number of clinical eyebrows. Specifically, many respiratory therapists wonder how Rotech, without providing face-to-face instruction and education for...
Industry advocates: The time is right to rethink the ABN option
April 30, 2004HME News Staff
The Advanced Beneficiary Notice - intended to be a lever for Medicare equipment upgrades - hasn't really caught on with providers since its inception a couple years ago. But with the Medicare Prescription Drug Act promising to seal off conventional revenue paths, it may be a good idea for providers to give the ABN another look, industry advocates say.
Dave Williams
In describing their reticence to use ABNs, providers say the main obstacles have been the fear of triggering an audit, complicated billing...
CMS goes by the numbers
April 30, 2004HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - When it comes to Medicare reimbursement for wheelchairs, CMS officials presented some eye-popping numbers at the March 31 forum.
In what Kim Brandt, acting director of the Program Integrity Group, called a “significant increase,” Medicare payments for power wheelchairs increased from about $10 million in 1994 to more than $1.2 billion in 2003. More troubling, she added, is the 300% increase in spending for wheelchairs between 2001 and 2003. By comparison, Medicare's overall...
The Scheme Team draws up brave new HME world
April 30, 2004HME News Staff
WILMINGTON, Del. - An industry coalition has ratified a new, structured framework that standardizes the names of HME products, establishes a hierarchy of product categories and sets units of measure.
The new schema is aimed at allowing products to be easily tracked.
Like a Dewey Decimal System for the HME industry, the new framework, or schema, seeks the creation of a common vernacular that will allow products to be easily tracked through a supplier's or a manufacturer's system.
Where do scooters...
Setting sail into a stormy sea of change
April 30, 2004HME News Staff
The Medicare Prescription Drug Act has launched the HME provider into uncertain seas. Not since, the Balanced Budget Amendment of 1997 and the Six Point Plan of 1989 have HMEs faced such momentous change to their business. If the legislated changes are implemented, the cheese will not be exhausted, but it will be moved. The challenge? A new route to respectable profitability. Before reporting the following suite of stories, we asked HME providers for new opportunities and new ways to cut costs. Here...
Optimists sit tight
April 30, 2004HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - As its 2005 start date draws closer, the new average sales price reimbursement for Part B drugs continues to draw fire - as well as questions and concerns - from those in the respiratory business.
“There is no way patients will have access to care if [the ASP reimbursement] is implemented as written,” said Miriam Lieber, president of Lieber Consulting. “I understand that it was bloated, but I think [MMA] went overboard and beyond.”
The MMA revised the reimbursement...
O2 Science sales rep picks a winner in Las Vegas
April 30, 2004HME News Staff
KENNESAW, Ga. - A 24-year industry veteran who has launched an HME company, delivered concentrators and beds, monitored oxygen saturation levels as an RT and finally found her calling as a billing guru and head of Jane's Billing & Consultation Services (JB&CS) is working on a roll-up and an IPO. Your typical IPO perhaps, but not your typical roll-up.
Jane Bunch
While Apria and Lincare come calling with wads of cash, the principals of Jane Bunch's DME holding company, DMEs of America, plan to woo...