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Scooter Store lays off 200

Scooter Store lays off 200

September 7, 2004 NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas - The Scooter Store announced the lay off of 200 employees last week as part of a restructuring effort to cope with increased Medicare denials and millions of dollars in lost revenue. "While we deeply regret having to part with any of our employee family, the continuing impact of restrictive Medicare policies leaves us no choice," said The Scooter Store's founder and CEO Doug Harrison in a company press release. The bulk of those released were "front line employees," including people in marketing, human resources, IT and billing and collections, according to a Scooter Store representative. "Our sales force was not affected this time because we restructured sales a few months ago," said The Scooter Store's President Mike Pfister in a story in the Herald-Zeitung, a New Braunfels-based newspaper. Pfister was appointed president just days before the lay off as an intial step in the company's restructuring process. Following this layoff, the company is left with about 1,000 employees, down from 1,600 employees at its peak. In January, the Scooter Store laid off 250 employees, mainly from its customer service departments. Both layoffs were a direct result of Medicare's crackdown of the K0011 market, which has reduced payments on the code by 50% in Region C alone. "We simply must resize the company to the current market environment to assure that we remain viable to carry on our mission to provide freedom and independence to our nation's mobility impaired," Pfister said in a company press release.

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