Get Informed, then Get Going!

Whether you’re looking for networking, advice, new products — or a shoulder to lean on, Medtrade officials say you can find it at this year’s fall show.

While the 31-year-old event will again offer components including the New Products Pavilion, Accreditation Central and an Expo floor crammed with 550 exhibitors (sold out at full capacity), next month’s trade show has been designed to aim attendees toward the reality of HME’s new world.

To be held Nov. 15-18 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Medtrade 2010 will offer 140 sessions in 11 educational tracks ranging from operations and information technology to human resources and staff development. While some sessions will focus on emerging opportunities in retail sales, others will concentrate on Medicare business strategies under the strain of changing regulatory policies and continuing reimbursement cuts.

Medtrade organizer Nielsen Expositions fashioned the mix with the help of an Educational Advisory Board looking at each session and a Blue Ribbon Task Force of providers and manufacturers from throughout the industry to generate ideas.

As a result, a 12-session track on competitive bidding has been added, an accessible lifestyle home will be built on the Expo floor and officials have turned 2009’s panel discussion on consumer advocacy into an entire “Consumer Advocacy Day,” extending invitations to attend to more than 100 area advocacy organizations.

Colette Weil, managing director of Summit Marketing and a member of Medtrade’s Educational Advisory Board, believes the competitive bidding sessions are “critical” for every provider. “Competitive bidding is the primary force changing the industry’s structure, service and beneficiary views,” says Weil. “It was imperative that we develop programs by and for providers to evaluate and learn about the far-reaching impacts.”

The NextGen Medtrade Accessible Home will be a 1,650-square-foot house, complete with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, built directly on the Expo floor. The house will showcase both accessible design and an array of products in a series of typical home health scenarios that demonstrate how people can remain independent as they “age in place” or face chronic illness or disability.

The ambitious display should help providers identify possible expansion areas for their businesses, according to Medtrade Group Show Director Kevin Gaffney. “Hopefully, providers will see new business opportunities that can help distinguish them from their competitors and provide additional services for their customers,” he says.

But attendees are not the only ones he’s hoping will see the accessible home. Gaffney says show producers are also hoping to attract the attention of national media to the demonstration home, which could in turn highlight the industry’s role in serving home-based patients.

The NexGen home comes from Bellevue, Wash.-based iShow, which produces demonstration homes for various trade shows such as the Consumer Electronics Show and the International Builders Show. It will be built by All American Homes and shipped in sections to be assembled on the Expo floor.

“The options and ideas this home will showcase are exciting,” says Gaffney, “and the cutting-edge products will show real-life solutions for Americans who are looking to avoid long-term care or alternate living scenarios.”

Gaffney is equally enthusiastic about Medtrade’s expanded Consumer Advocacy Day on Nov. 18. “The role of the consumer in health care choices is increasing every year,” he points out. “We know that informed consumers make the best choices and that is our goal,” Gaffney says, adding that it’s important consumers get involved in the lobbying effort to protect home care.

“The program we have designed heavily emphasizes that their participation in the process is essential if they want to remain able to make choices regarding their health care and the providers they work with,” he says.

The all-day consumer program includes specialized education in the areas of grassroots lobbying, mobility and respiratory care, along with a tour of the NexGen Accessible Home and access to the floor exhibits.

Medtrade is also aiming to get providers thinking not just about survival but success. Keynote speaker Clifford Schorer, entrepreneur in residence at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, will kick off the conference with a talk called “The Power of Innovation and Creativity in Today’s Turbulent Business Environment: A Roadmap to Success in the HME Industry.”

“Cliff’s approach will focus on how thinking out of the box, employing new business models and applying state-of-the-art technology can catapult a company to new levels of growth and profit,” says Gaffney. “These are the ideals we want Medtrade attendees and exhibitors to take home from the event and share with their employees as they seek opportunities for the present and the future.”

Use Code Home2000 for a $20 discount at www.medtrade.com! Don’t forget to visit HomeCare in Booth 2069.

The View from Inside the Beltway

Want the latest on competitive bidding? Elimination of the first-month purchase option for power wheelchairs?

Get up-to-the-minute news on these and other current legislative and regulatory issues at the American Association for Homecare’s Washington Update, scheduled at Medtrade on Nov. 17.

“With every member of the House and one-third of the Senate up for election in November, Washington is bracing for significant shifts in power that may alter the Washington landscape after the elections. At the AAHomecare Washington Update, we will discuss what the elections mean,” says the association’s Tyler Wilson, president and CEO.

The session will also include guest speaker Stan Collender, one of the nation’s top experts on the federal budget process, who will provide an insider’s look at how the government’s fiscal condition will affect HME providers over the next several years. Collender has worked for three members of the House Ways and Means and House Budget committees.

Getting a pulse on the activity in Washington is essential for providers and manufacturers to keep up with efforts “to preserve the service and products” the industry provides, says Medtrade Show Director Kevin Gaffney.

“The addition of Stan Collender’s inside knowledge of how Washington works will not only detail how things are done inside the Beltway but will give attendees a clear plan of how the HME industry can best work to emphasize the role it plays in keeping legislators’ constituents healthy and at home while reducing overall costs to the country’s health care budget.”

Education Tracks

• Accreditation Central
• Business Operations
• Competitive Bidding
• Human Resources, Leadership & Staff Development
• Industry Updates
• Information Technology
• Legislative & Regulatory Issues
• Sleep/Oxygen & Respiratory
• Rehabilitation & Assistive Technology
• Reimbursement
• Sales & Marketing

For information and a complete schedule, see www.medtrade.com