Repair Help for Do-It-Yourselfers, Outsourcers

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified David Kazan, Invacare’s iPartner Solutions vice president of sales and marketing. The company also points out that its 5 Star Service plan may only be purchased with new Invacare brand consumer power chairs or scooters ($150 for a wheelchair and $100 for a scooter). Once the power chair or scooter is covered by the plan, “the provider need not worry about servicing the equipment again. Roadrunner’s technicians will take care of everything, both during and after the warranty period,” Invacare says.

Whether you are looking to establish or upgrade your own repair center or seeking more efficient ways to outsource repairs, there is help. Following are some possibilities:

iPartner Solutions

Earlier this year, Elyria, Ohio-based Invacare unveiled this new tool designed to help providers with a variety of business elements, including repairs. Under its 5 Star Service Plan, providers have access to a nationwide team of technicians to service Invacare power wheelchairs or scooters either in their homes or offsite if needed.

“The reason providers are looking at this … is all about cost,” says David Kazan, iPartner‘s vice president of sales and marketing. “In today’s environment, and certainly in an environment that starts when the 9.5 cut in reimbursement [is implemented], you can’t do things as you usually have. You have to find ways to do business better, streamline activities, reduce costs, evaluate ways to do things like service.”

The 5 Star program is aligned with the initial power wheelchair warranty and allows providers to outsource the chair repairs, thus paring or eliminating such expenses as inventory of loaner chairs or scooters (the program includes a loaner), expanding fleets and staffing technicians with specialized training in complex rehab repair, Kazan says.

“It might be prohibitively expensive for you to service that,” he says. “It’s an economy-of-scale thing — we have scale and reach.”

The program is built on Invacare’s acquisition last year of Roadrunner Mobility, a network of techs focused on “nothing but service [of] power chairs,” Kazan says.

“If service is a headache to you with the technicians, the servicing, the truck, the gas, the tools, it removes the headache. Maybe you can put that money elsewhere to grow your business. It’s a make-buy decision.”

When the warranty lapses, the Roadrunner team can still take care of the rehab chairs, he adds, for a flat fee of $150 for a wheelchair, $100 for a scooter.

Kazan says that some providers may find they want to service their own equipment, so Invacare, like most other major manufacturers, has factory-authorized technical training to help them. But if outsourcing is more appealing and you need help not just with mobility but also respiratory, the company also has a network of a dozen or so repair centers for oxygen concentrators.

The MED Group

For about 20 years, the Lubbock, Texas-based member services group has offered its members a certified repair center program focusing on rehab products. Under the program — which involves a fee for a start-up package — a provider technician can go through three levels of training that is offered online, via textbook and in hands-on seminars that feature technical representatives from major manufacturers.

The levels result in Bronze, Silver or Gold certification, and providers also gain parts discounts, service management and operations guidelines, marketing tools and networking opportunities.

While the original program emphasizes power wheelchairs, MED recently rolled out a companion program focusing on respiratory products.

“A lot of what was driving it was anticipation of consumer ownership of respiratory products,” says Dick Fuller, director of technical services for the CRC program, referring to CMS’ initial plan to shift ownership of oxygen equipment to the Medicare beneficiary after it capped out.

Although beneficiary ownership has been dropped as part of the 36-month oxygen rental cap, the need is still there to make repairs a cost-effective part of doing business, Fuller says.

“What’s driving the interest now is the awareness that with the margins becoming very skinny, you have to keep your assets earning money for you,” he says. “You can’t be floating assets rather than getting things done.

“If we can fix it and turn it back into service, that’s definitely what we need to do,” Fuller continues, adding that boxing up a unit, sending it out for repairs and thus interrupting the machine’s ability to produce revenue can be costly.

“And we don’t have to have as many loaner units if we can fix them in our own shops and turn them around quickly,” he says, noting that providing like equipment to a beneficiary as mandated under Medicare rules can be especially tricky with custom wheelchairs.

Under the MED program, technicians learn everything from correctly assessing problems, providing accurate cost estimates, repairing everything from the most basic to the most advanced equipment and troubleshooting techniques. Fuller says it can take six months for a technician to achieve all three levels of service competency. So far, 125 companies, not including branches, have gone through the rehab program, and the new respiratory program is gathering steam. “Some companies are very large, some very small,” he says.

In addition to providing technical training, the program also makes recommendations on the facility a provider needs for a repair department. “Our role is to provide them with guidelines as to how to lay out the shop and the go, no-go decision as to whether or not to repair the equipment,” Fuller says.

He points out that the program is not static. “It’s a very agile program to meet those needs as we enter a changing environment,” he says. “As we get squeezed tighter for the dollar, there will be a lot of interest in keeping products running well rather than replacing them in a couple of years. For those companies that pursue it now, they are the ones that very likely will be looking pretty good a year or two from now.”

While Fuller is a champion of the in-house repair center, he recognizes that it’s not a one-size-fits-all concept. “It has to be cost-effective, it has to make good business sense,” he says.

MED members who are not able or who do not wish to repair power wheelchairs can get a helping hand from the service group through its National Repair Center, located in Lubbock. Center technicians are able to rebuild and repair controllers and joysticks for all major brands.

VGM

Through its US Rehab division, the Waterloo, Iowa-based member services group provides a three-day, hands-on seminar that focuses on power mobility electronics. Called the “Power Tech Training Program,” the seminar features VGM vendors sharing their expertise with provider technicians.

“The purpose … is to expand and strengthen the experienced rehab technician’s depth of knowledge and skill,” says Ron Bendell, president of VGM & Assoc.

Participants complete an exam at the end of the program, which is offered three times a year throughout the country, and those who pass become certified and thus satisfy Medicare quality standards requirements, Bendell says.

VGM has also established the VGM National Repair Network — five regional repair centers for respiratory and mobility products in California, Nebraska, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“These centers are authorized warranty dealers of many of the top manufacturers of respiratory and mobility products in the industry, Bendell says. “The network offers all VGM Group members discounted repair services and a drop-ship program.”

Depending on the type of repair, he says, the turnaround time is usually between five and 15 days.

Bendell ticks off several benefits to outsourcing to one of the repair centers in the program, including quick turnaround, reduced parts inventory to purchase and maintain, warranty-backed repair services and reduction in hiring, training and managing repair technicians.

“In many situations,” he adds, “providers may be able to reduce expenses utilizing a repair center versus hiring a dedicated staff of technicians.

“Coupled with the fact that most centers offer free pick-up and delivery to adjacent states, we have found that that frequently saves the provider substantial time and money.”