Another piece of the puzzle: Top DMEPOS suppliers for 2010

I got another piece of the puzzle this week for the State of the Industry report that we'll publish in our December issue: The top 100 DMPOS supplies for 2010.

In July, I posted a blog about the number of DMEPOS suppliers that bill Medicare in these five categories: less than $300,000 per year; $300,000 to $1 million; $1 million to $3 million; $3 million to $10 million; and more than $10 million.

What I learned from that piece of the puzzle: Medium-sized providers, those that bill between $1 million and $3 million, seem to have fared the best in 2010.

Now I have the top 100 suppliers of DMEPOS by amount allowed for 2010. You'll have to wait until December for the entire list, but below you'll find the top 10. The last number is the number of supplier PTANs.

1    LINCARE INC.    $768,992,664.25     958
2    LIBERTY MEDICAL SUPPLY, INC.    $413,452,040.96     4
3    APRIA HEALTHCARE INC    $363,338,898.14     406
4    ACCREDO HEALTH GROUP INC    $297,071,641.75     28
5    KCI USA, INC.    $175,169,539.48     120
6    LINCARE PHARMACY SERVICES INC.    $173,265,531.59     3
7    WALGREEN CO    $162,534,861.98     6,817
8    DEGC ENTERPRISES (U.S.), INC.    $159,606,461.96     3
9    BRADEN PARTNERS LP    $101,216,185.32     98
10  HANGER PROSTHETICS & ORTHOTICS, INC.    $94,266,353.21    262

There hasn't been much movement in the top 10 from last year. Lincare Pharmacy Services moved up to No. 6; DEGC moved down to No. 8; Walgreen moved up to No. 7.

New to the top 10: Braden Partners, which does business as Pacific Pulmonary Services and is owned by Teijin. We reported recently that Teijin is looking to consolidate smaller providers in existing markets, mostly in the West.

Out of the top 10: Procare Pharmacy, which dropped to No. 11.

The amounts allowed for the top 10 suppliers look on par, if not slightly larger, than last year.

What I learned from this piece of the puzzle: The largest providers are doing OK, too, competitive bidding be damned.

The big picture: It's hard to be a small HME provider these days. Which is why, at the HME News Business Summit next week in Charlotte, our panel of M&A experts will be discussing why HME providers may want to be buyers, not sellers, in this market. I know it seems counterintuitive, but it makes sense to Cape Medical Supply and other growing HME providers.

Enjoy, and as always, there's more data to come!

Liz Beaulieu