On The Editor's Desk

Last week, I had quite a few calls and exchanged quite a few emails with the speakers at this year's HME News Business Summit, Sept. 11-13, in Charlotte, N.C., to discuss panel discussions and presentations.

With everything going on in the HME industry right now, it's hard to believe that any other industry has it as bad.

Lawmakers last week passed a debt deal that allowed the government to keep paying its bills under one condition: That $1.2 trillion be shaved from the budget deficit by Thanksgiving. (Now there’s a reason to give thanks!)

Each year, we publish a State of the Industry Report full of data that gives you a snapshot of the industry from year to year.

(Go here to download last year's report.)

Invacare's Lou Slangen has a question for you: How would you describe what HME manufacturers and providers do?

If your answer is, "Well, they make and provide power wheelchairs and other home medical equipment," try again.

Invacare's Carl Will kicked off Invacare Media Day today with a speech about how HME manufacturers and providers alike need to be strategic, not tactical, thinkers if they want to survive the next few years.

It's Friday and is it me or does it seem like it's been a LONG week?

These two questions recently landed in the email inbox of Jeffrey Baird: What’s the difference between 1099 and W2 employees, and can I employ a medical director? Here’s what Baird, chairman of the Health Care Group at Amarillo, Texas-based Brown & Fortunato, had to say.

Remember when I blogged a while back about Lady Gaga mentioning the Jazzy power wheelchair in a Saturday Night Live skit? Remember how impressed we were?

It's all over the news today that Kinetic Concepts, Inc.