In brief: Heartland kicks off Monday, NSM buys Active Mobility

WATERLOO, Iowa - VGM's Heartland at Home conference kicks off Monday with a keynote from its regulatory and payer relations experts, Mark Higley, Ronda Buhrmester, Craig Douglas and John Gallagher. They'll speak on the topic “HME in the Post-Pandemic Era: Analysis & Commentary.” The event, which already has more than 1,000 registrants, takes place June 15 through July 10, and will feature five tracks covering billing and reimbursement, business operations and leadership, respiratory, rehab and accessibility. One day each week will feature a session from each of the five tracks.

Registration is open through the entirety of the four-week virtual conference and available at no cost to VGM members. Stay up to date on Heartland At Home by following VGM Heartland Conference on Facebookand vgmheartland.com/agenda.

Inogen's Wilkinson announces retirement

GOLETA, Calif. - Inogen CEO and President Scott Wilkinson has announced he will retire before the end of 2021. Wilkinson joined Inogen in 2005. “After 15 years with the company, I believe now is the right time to begin the transition to the next phase of leadership,” said Wilkinson. “I intend to work closely with the board to help identify, recruit and successfully integrate a new CEO.” Inogen has begun the process of identifying a successor. “On behalf of the board, I want to thank Scott for his significant contributions and dedicated years of service to Inogen,” said Heath Lukatch, Ph.D., chairman. “Scott's leadership and industry expertise will be missed by Inogen, and we are extremely thankful for his many contributions during his tenure.”

Sleep Coaches engages Allegiance Group

MINNEAPOLIS - Sleep Coaches has tapped Allegiance Group to help its customers improve patient pay collections. “Our team at Sleep Coaches is continually helping our HME clients maximize patient revenue by optimizing their patient's CPAP compliance and resupply programs,” said Mark Boardman, president. Sleep Coaches partners with providers to grow their resupply business. Allegiance Group offers comprehensive private pay patient billing and debt collection strategies for the health care industry

ABC Plus, Sleep Coaches partner with Team@Work

LOS ANGELES - ABC Plus Pharmacy and Sleep Coaches are collaborating with Team@Work to offer newly enhanced services to patients and referral sources. “ABC Plus Pharmacy and Sleep Coaches have come together to combine our expertise in patient compliance, live patient calls and highly trained patient care coordinators to improve patient care and to ensure DME providers and physicians are aware of risk, non-compliance, and the need of any additional equipment and services,” said Marcus Kruk, director of sales for ABC Plus Pharmacy. Team@Work offers revenue generation, compliance and market share growth for HME providers. The rapid adoption of telehealth during the current COVID-19 pandemic makes this an opportune time for the three companies to collaborate, says Ty Bello, Team@Work CEO. “There are many parts of this new normal, but increased revenue opportunities and a clinical sales approach with the referral community, may be a leading indicator for growth,” he said.

DarioHealth signs initial RPM contracts

NEW YORK - DarioHealth has signed its first two remote patient monitoring contracts. Dario's RPM product integrates the company's existing open platform, application technology and the DarioEngage coaching platform to offer physicians, health systems and large provider groups a turnkey solution to leverage the recently approved remote patient monitoring codes. “We are very pleased to have entered into our first two RPM contracts within a couple of months of launching into this entirely new market for us, which we believe demonstrates the value of our solution,” said Rick Anderson, president and general manager for North America. CMS recently approved RPM codes for Medicare patients, allowing physicians to bill for in-between patient care.

HHS releases funds for Medicaid providers

WASHINGTON - The Department of Health and Human Services is distributing an additional $15 billion in relief funding from the Provider Relief Fund, this time specifically for health care providers that participate in state Medicaid and CHIP programs, VGM reports.

To be eligible, providers must meet two requirements:

Not have received payments from the first two rounds of relief funding from the Provider Relief Fund General Distributions

Have directly billed their state Medicaid/CHIP programs or Medicaid managed care plans for health care-related services between Jan. 1, 2018, and May 31, 2020.

Eligible providers will be asked to report their annual patient revenue, which will be used to determine their payment. Similar to the first two rounds of relief, the payment to each provider will be at least 2% of reported gross revenue from patient care.

The final payment amount will be determined after the data is submitted.

Examples of possibly eligible providers are pediatricians, OBGYNs, dentists, assisted living facilities, and other home and community based services providers.

https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/cares-act-provider-relief-fund/general-information/index.html

NSM buys Active Mobility Products, begins rebranding process

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - National Seating & Mobility has acquired Active Mobility Products in Kelowna, B.C., strengthening its presence in the Interior Region of British Columbia in the Okanagan Valley.

Active Mobility was formerly owned and operated by Dino Padula, an adaptive seating and mobility specialist with more than 20 years of complex rehab technology experience. Padula will transition to the NSM team post-acquisition.

The Kelowna branch will be the first location outside of the U.S. branded as NSM. Over the next several months, two other NSM-owned companies in British Columbia, Advanced Mobility Products and SelfCare Home Health Products, will also rebrand as NSM.

NSM entered the Canadian market in early 2019 when it acquired SelfCare Home Health Products. A few months later, it also acquired Advanced Mobility Products.

Cognixion, Lincare AAC provide speech-generating device

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Cognixion has announced the release of the Expression Eye speech-generating device in conjunction with Lincare AAC. The device combines the power of advanced facial recognition and eye tracking technology in the Speakprose app, allowing people to quickly express communication hands free. “COVID-19 has raised awareness worldwide for the need to communicate with doctors and family when you are on respiratory therapy—a respirator or ventilator,” Cognixion stated in a press release. Cognixion and Lincare AAC are making the solution available nationwide. Cognixion is also working with several medical facilities to increase access to expressive communication for intubated and ventilated patients related to COVID-19 using the Speakprose Pro+ version of the app, allowing patients to express personal messages, important medical concerns and advanced directives using their eyes and facial expressions to select phrases that are spoken aloud.

Airport uses WHILL to reduce contact

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - The Haneda International Airport will use the WHILL Autonomous Drive System to help prevent spread of COVID-19, the company says. Use of the self-driving system helps to reduce the risk of spreading infection through contact between wheelchair service staff and passengers at close range. “In the Corona era, we believe services that support mobility, while maintaining social distancing, will accelerate to replace human labor with robots and autonomous driving technologies,” said Satoshi Sugie, CEO of WHILL. “WHILL wants to provide a safe service that connects the last mile. We look forward to rapidly developing our business to help restore a world where people can move around with peace of mind and enjoyment.” Eleven trials have been conducted at airports across the globe, including Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport, with nearly 400 passengers and airport officials using the WHILL self-driving system.

CMS makes change to multi-function vents permanent

WASHINGTON - Starting April 20, CMS permanently suspended claims editing for multi-function ventilators when there are claims for separate devices in history that have not met their reasonable useful lifetime, according to a revised MLN Matters article.

Effective immediately, DME suppliers may provide and bill for multi-function vents described by code E0467 as an upgrade in situations where beneficiaries only meet the coverage criteria for a vent.

Ventec Life Systems, which makes the VOCSN multi-function vent, applauded CMS's decision.

“We thank CMS for making this impactful change to E0467 to ensure access to the benefits of integrated respiratory care for ventilator users and their care partners,” said CEO Chris Kiple. “VOCSN is designed to free families from the complexity of managing and transporting five separate medical devices by providing everyday mobility and the convenience to complete every therapy in seconds at the touch of a button. Every family now has the right to benefit from this technology.”

CMS first allowed expanded use of multi-function vents earlier this year.

Previously, to meet the medical necessity coverage for multi-function vents, CMS required beneficiaries to need a vent and at least one of the four additional functions (oxygen concentrator, cough simulator, suction pump and nebulizer).

RRI relocates facility

ST. LOUIS - Responsive Respiratory has relocated to a 38,000-square-foot facility that combines office, manufacturing, warehouse and distribution space. “Our recent relocation and expansion enables RRI to stock more finished goods, increase the manufacture of custom items and continue to ship same-day,” said Thomas Bannon, president. In addition to increased manufacturing and fulfillment capabilities, the facility will also accommodate increased office capacity. The move comes on the heels of a strong first quarter of growth for the company. “This facility provides Responsive Respiratory with the ability to support our continued growth for years to come,” Bannon said.

AAHomecare taps Guidetti as new chair

WASHINGTON - AAHomecare's membership has approved Bill Guidetti, executive vice president, East Zone, Apria Healthcare, as its chairman of the board of directors. Other newly elected officers include Gary Sheehan, CEO, Spiro Health, as vice chairman; and Seth Johnson, senior vice president, Pride Mobility Products, as secretary. AAHomecare's membership also elected six individuals to its at-large board for three-year terms (2020-23), as recommended by a nominating committee. They are: Ryan Bullock of Aeroflow, Robert Fary of Inogen, Gordy Fox of Home Care Delivered, Casey Hoyt of Viemed, Josh Marx of Medical Service Company and Eric Pauls of Philips Respironics. Bullock, Fox and Hoyt are new to the board; Fary, Marx and Pauls have been re-elected. For a complete list of AAHomecare's officers and board of directors, go here.

Short takes: NorthShore Care Supply, Inspire Medical,

NorthShore Care Supply has been recognized by Digital Commerce 360 as one of the leading online retailers in the industry. After collecting nearly 200 data points from each retailer, Digital Commerce 360 performed a detailed analysis of industry benchmarks across many categories. NorthShore Care Supply ranked high in international shipping, mobile sales, average order volume, among other benchmarks…Inspire Medical Systems has appointed Phil Ebeling as its new COO. In the newly created role, he is responsible for oversight and leadership of operations, quality assurance, clinical research, regulatory affairs and business development activities. Ebeling was most recently a vice president and chief technology officer at Abbott. Inspire makes a neurostimulation device to treat moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.