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Archive: June 2002


News

Study validates at-home sleep diagnostics

June 30, 2002HME News Staff

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Sleep Solutions says an independent comparative study confirmed that its NovaSom QSG home diagnostic system is a reliable alternative to in-lab testing for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Fifty-one patients with suspected sleep apnea underwent one-night in-lab, simultaneous recordings of polysomnography (PSG) and NovaSom, in addition to self-administering the NovaSom QSG at home for three nights. The data showed very high agreement between NovaSom QSG and PSG when performed simultaneously...

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Official downplays cost of comp. bidding

June 30, 2002HME News Staff

WASHINGTON - A CMS official downplayed the industry's latest card in fighting the spread of competitive bidding at AAHomecare's Legislative Conference last month. Mark Wynn, a senior social science research analyst with CMS, told providers the administrative costs of running competitive bidding projects do not outweigh savings. In Polk County, for instance, CMS spent $4.2 million to save $7 million, he said. "And there were start-up costs in there," Wynn said. If rolled out nationally, the Office...

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Study: Demand for dressings to grow

June 30, 2002HME News Staff

SAN JOSE, Calif. - As the U.S. population ages, demand will continue to rise for advanced dressings used to treat chronic wounds, such as pressure ulcers, venous stasis ulcers, and diabetic ulcers, according to a new report by Frost & Sullivan. Moist wound dressings, which facilitate natural healing in a cost- effective manner, will increasingly be the choice of doctors for many of their elderly patients. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.healthcare.frost.com/ ), U.S. Advanced Moist...

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HealthMatrix Systems purchases RMN

June 30, 2002HME News Staff

RACINE, Wis. - HealthMatrix Systems, a private investment group, has acquired the Rehab Management Network and its Headley Order Processing System (HOPS) software. As a result of the acquisition, the Rehab Management Network will adopt the HealthMatrix Systems name, and HOPS will be revamped and renamed Symphony 2.5, according to Rick Headley, president of the Rehab Management Network. "I think we'll be more appealing to more people now," Headley said. "We were so limited before." The two-year-old...

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Competitive bidding?

June 30, 2002HME News Staff

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - While providers from Maine to Alaska sweat out the threat of a national Medicare competitive bidding program, Manuel Hernandez is blissfully ignorant of the dreaded reimbursement cut. "I don't know that much about it," said Hernandez, owner of Medi-Stop in Bakersfield, Calif. "I only know that it's coming. I know that it's starting in Florida or back East." Hernandez is out of the competitive bidding loop for a reason: his business is 80% retail HME and the rest insurance...

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Sunrise Medical relocates distribution center, Jay

June 30, 2002HME News Staff

LONGMONT, Colo. - Sunrise Medical is moving one of its three distribution centers from Atlanta to Memphis, effective July 22 and relocating its seating and positioning products manufacturing from here to facilities in Fresno, Calif. and Tijuana. The Jay relocation will take place over the next several months. The Memphis facility will serve as the south-central hub for all Sunrise Medical products and as complement to the company's other distribution facilities in Harrisburg, Penn., and Fresno,...

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e-CMN rules adrift in interpretation

June 30, 2002HME News Staff

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Although Region B Medical Director Adrian Oleck has retracted the progressive e-CMN policy published in the DMERC's December supplier bulletin, leading some HME providers to say the e-CMN is now dead, CMS still says the DMERCs should accept e-CMNs. Based on information obtained from officials in the Program Integrity Office, which dictates policy on e-CMNs, a CMS spokesperson told HME News in June that e-CMNs, contrary to alarm bells now sounding in the DMEPOS supplier community,...

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MP TotalCare acquires Express-Med

June 30, 2002HME News Staff

TAMPA, Fla. -  MP TotalCare acquired Express-Med in a private deal that closed June 17, combining one of the nation's largest independent providers of respiratory medications with one of the largest providers of diabetes, incontinence and ostomy supplies. Express-Med also provides respiratory medication through its acquisition late last year of Mobile, Ala.-based Total Parenteral Services (See HME News, Jan. 15. 2002). The two companies will continue to operate independently in Tampa and...

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Software

June 30, 2002HME News Staff

ARLINGTON, Texas - Each of the five years Erik Strader and his business partner, Ray Bockover, spent shopping around for management software for their rehab company, Integrated Rehabilitation Systems, they say they came up short. The two rehab specialists were looking for a complete solution but found software that provided work orders but not status reporting or invoicing but not scheduling. They were looking for an inexpensive solution but found software that required servers costing thousands...

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AHCA releases winners in Fla. competitive bidding project

June 30, 2002HME News Staff

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The administrator of the Medicaid program released its "notice of intent to award" bids for oxygen equipment and supplies and hospital beds to five providers last month. Initially, the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) announced that it intended to award bids to Rotech, Mercury Medical, Care Med Respiratory Services and Central Medical Equipment. Rotech and Central Medical Equipment were the big winners, with Rotech collecting bids for six of the 11 regions and Central...

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