■ Medtrade Spring:
Sample the new products
that you’ll find at this year’s
show, including this UltraFill
from Philips Respironics, on
page 44.
■ Special Report:
Meet five providers
who do little to no
Medicare business.
See page 44.
HME
NEWS
POLL
■ Have you contacted your local
newspaper, TV or radio station this year to
pitch them a story about your company or
an industry issue you’re concerned about?
See results on page 70.
VOLUME 16 — NUMBER 5
MAY 2010
$7.00
T H E
B U S I N E S S
N E W S P A P E R
H O M E
M E D I C A L
E Q U I P M E N T
P R O V I D E R S
Healthcare reform
NEWS
■ PAOC anticipates problems with
Round 2 of national competitive
bidding. PAGE 4
■ Q&A: Center for Regulatory
Effectiveness. PAGE 4
■ NSC update: ‘Hopefully, the worst is
over.’ PAGE 10
SMART TALK
■ This month, our columnists tackle
creating structure, working with
investigators, starting the day slowly
and making connections. PAGES 22-23
COMMENTARY
■ A.J. Filippis,
AAHomecare’s
chairman of the
board, believes the
industry can tackle
the challenges
ahead by building
on its “momentum,
unity and success.”
PAGE 21
DEPARTMENTS
PROVIDERS
HME industry:
What’s our
next move?
BY LIZ BEAULIEU Editor
With a stroke of
President Barack Obama’s pen,
the HME provisions included
in the Senate’s healthcare reform
bill became law March 23.
H.R. 3590, passed by the House
of Representatives March 21,
packs a punch. It will, among
other things, expand Round 2 of
national competitive bidding to
another 21 cities and eliminate the
first-month purchase option for
WASHINGTON –
■ Blackstone tries to recoup on Apria
deal. PAGE 25
■ What’s Seeley’s script for success?
PAGE 25
■ Ron Richard to providers: Look at
oxygen as glass half full.
PAGE 30
REHAB
■ Separate benefit: ‘We’re not getting
comments.’
F O R
PAGE 33
■ Mobility Conquest puts wheelchair
users behind handlebars.
PAGE 33
■ PR efforts target mobility. PAGE 34
RX & SPECIALTY PROVIDERS
■ Simplex works it out. PAGE 41
■ Neb-med prices up. PAGE 41
■ Outside the box: sleep apnea. PAGE 43
VENDORS
■ Industry on conserver study: Duh!
PAGE 63
■ Fastrack sweetens the pot. PAGE 64
■ Invacare gets clinical. PAGE 67
WWW.HMENEWS.COM
Expanded competitive
bidding program serves as
wake-up call. PAGE 4
■
Who will feel the most pain:
small or large wheelchair
providers? PAGE 33
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA may be celebrating the passage
of healthcare reform, but HME providers are not.
‘Precarious situation’
BY LIZ BEAULIEU Editor
■
Vendors prepare to ease
burden of losing first-month
purchase option. PAGE 63
■
Silver lining: Medical device
tax doesn’t take effect until
2013. PAGE 65
■
Providers are trying to envision what life will be like
without the first-month purchase option for standard power wheelchairs, and they don’t like what they see—for themselves or their
patients.
First, they see cash flow issues. If they have to wait 13 months to
get all of their reimbursement, they’ll have to ask lenders for capital
to finance their equipment purchases. Have you tried to squeeze
money from a bank these days, they ask?
WASHINGTON –
CONT I N U E D O N PAG E 6
Providers
rethink their
specialties
C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 6 8
Ready for duty
Medicare ups ante
for CPAPs—again
It’s ‘an awful lot to ask,’ says The MED Group’s
Kelly Riley of the new documentation requirements
BY LIZ BEAULIEU Editor
W
hat does it say that providers who specialize
in respiratory products
and services—long thought to be
the bread and butter of the HME
industry—are now thinking about
embracing hospital beds, walkers
and other run-of-the-mill products
and services?
Well, things aren’t like what
✔ Multiple interface options
have been tried and the current
BALTIMORE – Just when CPAP providinterface is most comfortable to the
ers thought CMS couldn’t possibly beneficiary; and
impose more documentation
✔ The work of
requirements on them, the DME
exhalation with the
MACs last month began enforcing
current pressure setnew local coverage determinating of the E0601 pretions (LCDs).
vents the beneficiary
Effective April 1, four specific
from tolerating the
coverage requirements must be
therapy; and
documented by the physician
✔ Lower pressure
before the provider can move a Helen Kent
settings of the E0601
patient from a CPAP (E0601) to
fail to adequately cona bi-level machine. Previously, it was trol the symptoms of OSA or reduce
enough to show that the beneficiary the AHI/RDI to acceptable levels.
tried and was unsuccessful with
It’s another example of “good
attempts to use the CPAP device. medicine, bad policy,” stakeholdIn addition to that, physicians now ers say.
C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 4 3
must also document that:
BY THERESA FLAHERTY Managing Editor
CONTIN U E D O N PAG E 3 0
CRAMER DECKER MEDICAL’S
Meret Recover O2 response
bag was recently featured
on the TV show “Trauma.”
That’s not the company’s only
news: It has also merged with
its parent company, Cramer
Decker Industries, and
revamped its Web site. See
stories page 63.