Archive: March 2011

LENEXA, Kan. - Mediware plans to acquire the assets of CareCentric's home medical equipment, home health and home infusion software businesses, it announced March 31. As a result of the deal, Mediware, which has more of a presence in the software market for acute care, will pick up more than 300 new customers and related products, services and contracts. “With the additional customers, Mediware software will now support more than 700 sites delivering home infusion, home medical equipment,...

These two links have lit up the NRRTS listerv for the past week: http://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Comfort-Company-Vector-Cushion-with-Vicair-Technology/15205425?adid=bzv_fb_rev%3E%20shr_001 http://www.walmart.com/ip/Karman-Healthcare-Stand-Up-Power-Wheelchair/132250 The links were distributed on Monday and since then providers have been posting comments about how manufacturers shouldn't be selling complex rehab products to online companies who sell direct to consumers (in this case Walmart...

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. - Landauer Metropolitan Inc. (LMI) is back on the acquisition trail. In March, it snapped up Buffalo, N.Y.-based Kaba Healthcare and it has no plans to stop there. "The owners didn't understand our space and wanted out," said CEO Lou Rocco. "We got a good value." Kaba Healthcare, a subsidiary of Woodmark Healthcare Enterprises, a network of skilled nursing facilities, has about $2 million in annual revenues. It's the first buy for LMI since a buying spree in 2009, when the provider...

OKLAHOMA CITY - It looks like Graymark Healthcare's renewed focus on sleep is paying off: Revenues increased 30% in 2010, the provider reported March 28. Revenues for the year ended Dec. 31, 2010 were $22.8 million up from $17.6 million in 2009. The increase is attributed to, among other things, added revenues from Graymark's acquisitions of Somni sleep centers in 2009. Revenues from the company's sleep diagnostic business increased 27%, to $17.2 million in 2010, compared to $13.5 million in 2009....

Proving the old adage that the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree, a Miami (again) mother and her two daughters have been charged with health care fraud, according to an article on miamiherald.com. Isabel Torres, 48, was also charged with identity theft, while her daughters, Samantha Carta, 21 and Natasha Miranda, 24, were each charged with making a false statement to law enforcement. The three women and other family members submitted more than $12 million in fraudulent Medicare claims,...

ORLANDO - Much has been made of the Medicare reimbursement (or the increasing lack thereof) for home oxygen therapy. But what about the benefits of this therapy, when it's done right? Shouldn't physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists be focusing on that? And if they do, won't reimbursement take care of itself? Bob McCoy thinks so. Here's what McCoy, a respiratory therapist and the managing director of Valley Inspired Products, had to say about this “game-changing” conversation. HME...

Industry consultant Alison Cherney says “everyone wants to get into managed care” these days. “They're saying, 'I'm in a competitive bidding area and I lost Medicare, what do I do now?'” said Cherney, president of Cherney & Associates in Brentwood, Tenn. “They think managed care looks attractive, but they can't, after all these years of hating it, just turn around and get a contract. It's not easy and it takes awhile.” Cherney says...

BOSTON - Providers here learned in December that the state Medicaid program doesn't think providers should participate in loan and consignment closet arrangements. The issue came to light after MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program, audited providers participating in loan and consignment closets with physicians. Because under such an arrangement, the HME provider is delivering the items to the physician, rather than directly to the patient, they are not eligible for Medicaid reimbursement,...

TRENTON, N.J. - A proposal that would shift about 121,000 Medicaid beneficiaries from fee-for-service into managed care plans caught home medical equipment providers by surprise in February. The proposal would affect what is known in New Jersey as the "aged, blind and disabled (ABP)" population. "That population is one that our membership does a great deal of business with," said Wendy Russalesi, executive director of the Jersey Association of Medical Equipment Services (JAMES). "These are high-needs...

I'm beginning to think home medical equipment providers are damned if they do, damned if they don't. We had a story on the front page of our March issue about industry leaders who are worried providers are helping to "prop up" the competitive bidding program by, among other things, providing services for free to Medicare beneficiaries who can't locate a contract supplier. It's a valid concern. If providers continue to soften the blow of competitive bidding, how will anyone, especially CMS and Congress,...