Orlando, Fla. Last month, Rotech Healthcare signed an agreement with Melville, N.Y.-based Gentiva Health Services, the nation's largest home health nursing company, to supply respiratory therapy and DME services to patients.

Rotech now has primary preferred provider arrangements in 23 states and shared preferred arrangements in 10 states through Gentiva's CareCentrix network, which provides managed care organizations with home care services including traditional home nursing, chronic and acute infusion therapies and DME and respiratory equipment.

Rotech has also signed a three-year primary preferred provider agreement with Gentiva to provide CPAP devices and related OSA products for CareCentrix patients.

Phillip L. Carter, Rotech's president and CEO, said the company's annual revenue from these contracts “could well be greater than $25 million as we enter 2005,” and could open new opportunities for Rotech with other managed care organizations.

The agreement comes shortly after Lake Forest, Calif.-based Apria Healthcare decided not to renew its Gentiva CareCentrix contract, which expired at the end of last year.

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