Archive: April 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - AAHomecare hired an executive search firm in early April to begin beating the bushes for the right person to replace CEO/President Kay Cox, who departed the association in February. Paul Belford, an associate specializing in association recruiting at JDG, will conduct the search for the president/CEO slot. JDG is based in Rockville, Md. "We spoke with several firms and any would have done a good job, but we figured this firm was the best match," said Michael Reinemer, AAHomecare's...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A bill to make all DME exempt from the state sales tax passed muster in the Senate and had support from the governor, but it failed to reach the floor of the House of Representatives before legislators adjourned in early March, killing any chance it had to become law this year. "They pigeonholed me in the rules committee," said Tom Coogan, vice president of Care Medical, which has branches in Washington and Oregon. "It felt like I was in a car race, and I was in first place, and...

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania providers have forced state lawmakers to take a closer look at a proposal to cut DME and home health reimbursement by $16.8 million. At a Spring Lobbying Day, 32 participants representing 15 companies met with 49 lawmakers. Of particular concern: Medicaid competitive bidding. "We made the legislators more aware of our concerns," said Dave Fiorini, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers (PAMS). While PAMS's primary goal is...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - What a difference a year makes. From January 2004 to January 2005, Roy Adams was in Iraq as a combat engineer with the 153rd Engineer Battalion Bravo Co. of the South Dakota National Guard. He trolled through Baghdad and other cities for weapons caches and destroying them. In two month's time, he helped find some 60,000 pounds of explosives buried in the ground or hidden under false floors. "(The Iraqi insurgents) were only limited by their imagination," said Adams, a 36-year-old...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Vicki Briggs has channeled her passion for women's health care into a career. She serves as secretary/treasurer of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health in Washington, D.C., and as chairwoman of the National Perinatal Information Center in Rhode Island. She co-founded the Council of Women's and Infant's Specialty Hospitals, a group of 10 of the largest women's hospitals in the country that work together to design new programs and initiatives to improve women's health care. In...

WASHINGTON - In a three-page document posted to its Web site Wednesday, AAHomecare boiled down CMS's 203-page proposal for national competitive bidding into nine key categories. CMS released its proposal Monday, April 24. The proposal was slated for publication in the Federal Register today, and CMS will accept comments until June 30. AAHomecare's document reads as follows: COMPETITIVE BIDDING IMPLEMENTATION CONTRACTORS (CBICs) CMS proposes to contract with one or more contractors that would be...

YARMOUTH, Maine - Vehicle modifications and lifts have been a good supplement to the rehab business for years. But with increasingly complex and difficult documentation requirements for wheelchairs and scooters, providers say they plan to drive up their automotive/mobility businesses this year. A+ Medical & Mobility in Augusta, Ga., aims by mid-2006 to significantly boost the number of advertising dollars it spends to promote its lifts and minivans with lowered floors. It currently runs one TV ad...

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Until this year, checking a patient's Medicare eligibility more than occasionally proved so cumbersome, time-consuming and costly that, like most providers, All-State Medical often said forget it. "It wasn't worth it," said Marcus Suess, president of the Tampa, Fla., HME. "The risks of being denied were acceptable to us for the time spent on the phone." All that changed when Suess began using Diabco's real-time Medicare eligibility software, Me-First. Diabco unveiled its...

CALIENTE, Nev. - Cards and dollar toys just don't cut it anymore for Meadow Valley Pharmacy, but DME is another story, said Joshua Nay, DME manager. The independent pharmacy, serving a large, rural area, remodeled its showroom in late March and now devotes about 20% of its 2,700 square feet to DME like power mobility, crutches, canes, walkers and some incontinence and diabetic supplies. "Dollar per square foot, (DME) makes so much more money than anything you can carry in the pharmacy," said Nay....

WOBURN, Mass. - As you might expect of someone who oversees the nation's largest provider of blood glucose testing supplies and related diabetes services, PolyMedica CEO Patrick Ryan is a hard guy to track down. In December, the company partnered with a PR firm to boost outreach to its 850,000 diabetic patients (HME News February 2006). While the CEO did not grant HME News a sitdown interview to discuss that news, he did prepare a written overview of his predictions for 2006. While the predictions...