Archive: May 2008

ST. LOUIS--If you'd like to incorporate your oxygen cylinders and cylinder carrying cases into your company's advertising program--and do it for just a few bucks--Responsive Respiratory wants to talk. The company unveiled in April a private logo program. It will now silk screen your company's name onto cylinder carrying cases and secure your logo under a cylinder's clear coat, making it impossible to remove and the cylinder easier to clean. “Every one of those patients is seeing a doctor...

The recent roll out of CMS's ATS requirement was supposed to be uneventful. After all, most providers who supply complex power wheelchairs already have ATSs on staff, industry sources say. But thanks to shifting market dynamics and a last-minute decision by CMS to change the rules of the game, providers have had more problems with the requirement than they expected, sources say. Shifting dynamics Starting April 1, providers had to use ATSs to supply certain complex power wheelchairs, those categorized...

PITTSBURGH--The University of Pittsburgh wants to fill a void in the O&P field, starting this fall. The school is awaiting final approval on its new prosthetics and orthotics degree to its Master of Science in Health and Rehabilitation program. There's a growing need for such programs, said Ray Burdett, acting director of the O&P program. An aging population, a growing number of war veterans and skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes will drive up need, and with only eight O&P programs offered...

WASHINGTON--It looks like CMS plans to barrel ahead with competitive bidding, ignoring the claims of providers who say they were unjustly disqualified from the program. “We can negotiate until hell freezes over,” said industry attorney Jeff Baird. “But I've reached the conclusion that CMS is going to push forward with competitive bidding unless it is told not to by Congress or a judge.” Baird's not alone. Most industry insiders feel the same way. One even characterized the...

For the last few years, you've had a section in your paper called Rehab. Your criteria for including articles in this section have always escaped me. You use ambiguous phrases in your articles like “rehab consumer power” and “as rehab providers dug through national competitive bidding pricing for standard and complex power wheelchairs…” just to cite a few. You feature stories in your Rehab section on companies and individuals who even by the furthest stretch of the imagination...

With national competitive bidding and other reimbursement cuts, it hasn't been easy for providers like Jan Soderquist to keep their spirits up. It took a recent relief mission to a foreign country to remind Soderquist why she got into the wheelchair business. Soderquist, president of Rehab Equipment Associates (REQ) in Manchester, N.H., was part of a team of providers, therapists and technicians who traveled to Lima, Peru, for two weeks in March and outfitted about 100 children and adults with wheelchairs. “There...

Mike Laky knows what HME providers want from their sales reps, and he should. Prior to starting his independent rep firm 10 years ago with partner David Monceaux, Laky operated his own rehab company. Nothing bugged him more than a rep who did not return phone calls promptly. “When I was a provider, we weren't the biggest player in the field, but we weren't the smallest,” he said recently. “But I couldn't get a rep to call me back. That always bothered me. If you don't call providers...

GOLETA, Calif.--Inogen's attempting to rein in rogue Internet resellers of its portable oxygen concentrators by, on occasion, selling direct to the consumer, said CEO Ray Huggenberger. In January, the company initiated a policy to bypass traditional HMEs and sell direct if that person called Inogen wanting to purchase a POC for cash over the Internet. Such sales represent less than 5% of Inogen's business, and the company still passes on all insurance business to its providers, Huggenberger said. There...

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.--Rebecca and Chad Mills opened Mills Family Pharmacy April 23. The business will offer old-fashioned customer service, said Chad Mills in the online edition of the Murfreesboro Post. “We are going to be different,” he said. “You are going to be able to come in and talk to the pharmacist.” The pharmacy will carry DME and nebulizers, diabetic footwear and gift items.

Orbit Medical employees, family members and pets participated in the multiple sclerosis walk for a cure in Salt Lake City in April. The provider raised nearly $2,500 for the cause…Southern Home Medical Equipment seeks to sell its Ladies Health & Fitness division so it can focus on nurse staffing, the company announced April 29.