Making the hard decisions

I spoke with a wheelchair provider yesterday who says he's turning a six-digit loss last year into a six-digit gain this year after making some hard decisions. The provider has downsized his product line (from a full line to wheelchairs and disposables) and his payer mix (from Medicare to just Medicaid, private insurance and cash). Unfortunately, that has meant more downsizing: from four locations to one and from 38 employees to 19. While those weren't easy decisions to make, the provider said:

Medicare has kind of been winnowing away at us for years. When it becomes unprofitable, you can't keep doing it. It's foolish to pay them for the privilege of doing business."

Read this provider's story in the November issue.

Liz Beaulieu