Briefs

CareCentric may go private ATLANTA - A group of investors is proposing to take CareCentric private. The proposal, led by CareCentric's majority stockholder John Reed, would pay small stockholders (those holding fewer than 4,000 shares) $0.55 cents per share. As recently as two years ago, the vendors of MestaMed and DME VI software were selling shares for about $4. Reed's move would ultimately reduce the number of investors to about 200 from 4,500. CareCentric was delisted from the NASDAQ last summer and now trades on the OTC Bulletin Board. Code opens up ventilation market MINNEAPOLIS - A new CMS billing code, E0454, is opening the door to reimbursement for pressure ventilators with pressure control, pressure support and flow triggering features. Previously, the only HCPCS code available for home mechanical ventilation was E0450, which covers a basic volume ventilator. Where volume ventilator reimbursement came in at about $900 per month, reimbursement for pressure ventilators is abut $1,100 - $1,400 per month. Pulmonetic Systems, one of the primary vendors of pressure ventilators, has sold about 6,000 pressure ventilators into the U.S. market since 1999. A large portion of those ventilators serve children in the home care market. Outtakes Taga Medical Technologies, a manufacturer of a CPAP humidifier and other respiratory products, has relocated its engineering and manufacturing operations from Mentor, Ohio to Eastlake, Ohio… Palco Labs of Santa Cruz, Calif., has sold its monitoring products division, including its pulse oximeter line, to Medi+Aid, another Calif.-based company.