Norco deepens reach in Northwest with Petersen Medical 

BOISE, Idaho – Norco Medical’s recent acquisition of Petersen Medical gives the company a chance to expand its footprint to Utah, says Troy Johnson.  

Longstanding partnership laid groundwork for deal  

Norco Medical already had a presence in the state with its industrial medical gas business, and it has a longstanding relationship with Petersen Medical, says Johnson, executive vice president-medical.   

“We have been familiar with the leadership team at Petersen for several years and worked together from time to time,” he said. “We share many common values, including an organizational culture of providing top-level service to the customer. And with Utah being a target market on our mind, we felt it would be a strategic move to add the Petersen organization to our Northwest footprint.”  

Family-owned provider expands on decades of growth  

The family-owned Norco Medical – now led by third-generation Nicole Kissler – opened its first medical branch in downtown Boise in 1989. Today, it has 45 medical branches in eight states across the Northwest. The company offers a full line of home medical equipment, sleep and respiratory services, continuous glucose monitoring (CGMs) and complex rehab.  

Technology, efficiency remain core differentiators  

Norco Medical has managed to stay on top of technology, both in its operations and in the products and services it provides, says Johnson. The company plans to adopt that same level of efficiency into Petersen Medical in Utah. 

“We’ve really become focused over the years and managed in a way that we could still maintain a high level of service, in spite of eroding reimbursement rates,” he said. 

ESOP structure drives employee engagement  

Norco Medical became an employee stock ownership program (ESOP) about 20 years ago, something that has earned it a lot of buy-in from its employees and something that Petersen Medical will also benefit from, says Johnson.  

“I think the employee-owners at Norco are a lot more aware of how and why to be operationally sound and extremely efficient in how we take care of the customer so that there’s not a lot of waste,” he said.  

Preparation for next round of competitive bidding  

Johnson says Norco Medical plans to submit bids in the next round of competitive bidding – a program that stakeholders expect to require and reward scale. He says it’s “unfortunate” CMS chose to resurrect the program.   

“We’ve tried to do everything we can to stay in front of our local politicians and be as loud as we can within the footprint we have in the Northwest,” he said. “But we’ve got to play in that space, and we intend to bid.”