Archive: December 2010
Have cash available
December 31, 2010LeAnn Kelly
A. In the past, equipment leasing OR a bank line of credit was all a business owner needed. But business owners today need the flexibility that both can provide. HME providers, in particular, need a full set of tools to address reimbursement and other challenges. Having equipment leasing and a bank line of credit allows HME providers to react quickly to cash and equipment demands.
A bank line of credit gives HME providers working capital for expenditures, leasehold improvements, acquisitions and...
Why is it important? Why, indeed.
December 30, 2010Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
Unless you live under a rock (or, are buried under a snowdrift here on the East Coast), you know that last week saw some massive snowfall.
If you read HME News, (see above reference to rocks and snowdrifts if you don't), you'll also know that's the kind of thing we'll make calls on, to see how providers manage to take care of business not as usual.
We talk to providers all over the country and have lots of good contacts willing to get the word about anything and everything relevant.
Occasionally,...
Everyone is talking about competitive bidding, but not me.
December 30, 2010Mike Moran
Everywhere I turned this week, people were talking about competitive bidding, but you won't hear a peep out of me. Not today.
A provider sent me an email a few days ago that included the following paragraph about competitive bidding:
"Despite years of effort by the industry to derail competitive bidding, the flawed program has been implemented in the first nine markets. And implementation of the program will begin in an additional 91 markets in the next six months. Some in the HME industry...
Competitive bidding: 'CMS has turned this industry into a nightmare'
December 29, 2010Liz Beaulieu, Editor
WASHINGTON - HME providers are feeling a mixture of resignation, anxiety and anger now that competitive bidding is the law of the land.
"My emotional state right now is, let's get on with it," said Kim Brummett, vice president of contracting and reimbursement for Advanced Home Care, a contract supplier in the Charlotte competitive bidding area (CBA). "We did it before and it was awful, and most of us don't anticipate it will go well this time, either, but let's just get on with it."
Medicare implemented...
Competitive bidding call goes wrong...very, very wrong
December 29, 2010Liz Beaulieu, Editor
On Dec. 28, contract suppliers and others phoned into a teleconference with officials from the Competitive Bidding Implementation Contractor (CBIC) to discuss competitive bidding. With only three days until Jan. 1, when the program goes live, they knew it would be one of their last chances to ask questions and relay their concerns.
What ensued, however, was "a big mess," said one person who was on the call.
First, officials changed the pass code for the teleconference at the last minute, meaning...
Bye-bye purchase option: First year without it won't be pretty
December 29, 2010Liz Beaulieu, Editor
WASHINGTON - HME providers who supply standard power wheelchairs are bracing themselves for a major blow to their cash flow thanks to the elimination of the first-month purchase option.
On Jan. 1, Medicare started paying providers for standard power wheelchairs over the course of 13 months instead of in one lump sum in the first month.
"Well, we've been buying up good used equipment where we can find it and we're keeping cash aside so we can make it through the first few months," said Roger Bowman,...
Winter weather whips HME providers into action
December 29, 2010Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
NEW YORK - Twenty inches of snow can mean a coveted "snow day" for workers in many industries, but the HME industry is not one of them.
"We can't use that as an excuse for not servicing the patient," said Joe Candiano, operations supervisor for Farmingdale, N.Y.-based Homecare Concepts. "They don't want to hear that you can't get down their street. They want their oxygen."
Homecare Concepts services Long Island and all five boroughs of New York City, a region especially hard hit by a post-Christmas...
Winter weather whips HME providers into action
December 29, 2010Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
NEW YORK - Twenty inches of snow can mean a coveted "snow day" for workers in many industries, but the HME industry is not one of them.
"We can't use that as an excuse for not servicing the patient," said Joe Candiano, operations supervisor for Farmingdale, N.Y.-based Homecare Concepts. "They don't want to hear that you can't get down their street. They want their oxygen."
Homecare Concepts services Long Island and all five boroughs of New York City, a region especially hard hit by a post-Christmas...
In brief: AAH readies complaint line, CMS botches call
December 29, 2010HME News Staff
ARLINGTON, Va. - AAHomecare is asking providers to help document problems with competitive bidding by logging on to www.biddingfeedback.com or calling 888-990-0499. The association has already received reports of the following problems: contract suppliers who are bankrupt; errors on the Medicare website providing misinformation to beneficiaries; incorrect materials sent to beneficiaries outside of the bidding areas instructing them to switch providers; lack of required state licensure among some...
New Year, new attitude: 'I am cautiously optimistic about 2011,' provider says
December 29, 2010Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
YARMOUTH, Maine - It was a dark year for the HME industry, but many providers say they are looking ahead to a brighter 2011.
"I am excited about the future," said Randy Freeman, owner of Fort Worth, Texas-based Mediwell. "I am concerned about some of the changes, but we are going to do well this year. We just have to get used to a different business model."
For Freeman, that means building up his retail business, even as he services the Medicare bidding contracts he won.
"Retail is going to be...