Tag: HME news

After weeks of receiving email notifications from LinkedIn, I learned the reason why when I logged onto the company Slack this week. August 25 marked my 15-year anniversary with HME News, according to the impeccable records of the Capable Erika. Fifteen years! I'm never sure whether to celebrate or commiserate when someone hits such a lengthy tenure. That first week, I had no idea what I had done, what I was doing, what the heck was a rollator, and what the future held, either for me or this strange...

WATERLOO, Iowa - VGM & Associates and HME News have launched the 14th annual HME Financial Benchmarking Survey. The two groups have partnered to bring to the industry a single survey for providers to share their business data for benchmarking purposes. “While yearly survey results provide a 'snapshot' of the current state of the industry, more importantly, we are able to observe trends and patterns, which are so valuable to those in the industry considering potential growth opportunities and...

Greetings and Happy New Year from all of us at HME News!As my first months as publisher of HME News comes to a close, I'd like to thank Rick, Liz, Theresa, Jo and everyone else here on our team for helping me jump into this new role and industry.While there's much to learn and many people and companies to familiarize myself within the industry, I was delighted to start my position as publisher just as Medtrade Fall was taking place. It was a perfect opportunity to get an overview of the industry,...

YARMOUTH, Maine - HME News, the leading news source for the home medical equipment industry, has named Sarah Flanagan publisher effective Nov. 4.It's a return to United Publications—publisher of HME News and Security Systems News—for Flanagan. She was a regional sales manager for Security Systems News from March 2014 to September 2016. “I'm thrilled to be back at United Publications, working with and helping to guide the extremely talented team at HME News,” said Flanagan,...

WATERLOO, Iowa, and YARMOUTH, Maine - VGM Group and HME News have opened the HME Financial Benchmarking Survey. They're partnering on the survey, which tracks data on everything from days sales outstanding to revenue per full-time employee, for the second year. “This continued partnership makes it convenient for HME providers to have one source to submit their business information,” said Clint Geffert, president of VGM & Associates. “We highly encourage all HME providers to participate...

It just occurred to me and Theresa this week, as we were pasting up the January issue (yes, in addition to writing 98% of all the stories that appear in the issue, we also lay it out using InDesign!), that 2019 is the 25th year that HME News has been in print. 25 big ones. Theresa and I have been working at HME News since 2005 and 2004, respectively, so in other words, about half of the publication's life. Looking at the front page of HME News way back in 1995 is quite a trip. Remember when HME manufacturers...

WASHINGTON - CMS on May 25 published the adjusted reimbursement rates that will go into effect for seven months in rural areas.The adjustments, called for in a recently released interim final rule, means reimbursement for oxygen concentrators, for example, will go from $77.16 to $121.46 per month from June 1 through Dec. 31 in rural areas.Per the IFR, CMS is reverting to 50/50 blended reimbursement rates in rural areas, but not in all non-bid areas, as stakeholders had hoped.Other examples include...

WATERLOO, Iowa - The VGM Group and HME News have partnered to administer one HME Financial Benchmarking Survey, rather than two separate surveys. The two entities say the move will mean an increase in responses and more consistent data. “We're excited to work with our friends at VGM on this project,” said Rick Rector, publisher of HME News. “We look forward to increased participation and can't wait to dig into the data and share it with the respondents, as well as HME Business Summit...

Like so many others in the HME industry, HME News has downsized a bit. By that, I mean our parent company decided to give up one wing of our office space and move those people (who happened to be primarily HME News staffers) into the other half of the office where admittedly there was a lot of wasted space. Although, not quite enough space. Administration referred to this as The Consolidation. Having gone from my own spacious cube with a window to a…corner I prefer to think of it as The Big Squeeze....

One of the many tasks the editors at HME News field is drumming up a newspoll each month. Sometimes the questions are better than others, and sometimes what seemed like a great question, on second read, after the poll already goes out, seem obvious. This month's topic, Amazon, definitely generated lots of comments on the impact of the Amazon effect. “Amazon's suicide pricing will (if unchecked) destroy our industry exactly like they destroyed the retail industry.” For this, and other...