The Mother Index

The bad economic news just keeps piling up.

Virtually every newscast I’ve listened to lately says the country’s “leading economic indicators” are down and don’t seem to be improving. Financial news now tops the nation’s worry list, pervading every aspect of our lives.

The current situation even made it onto a radio game show I heard the other night where a panel of experts was asked to name specifically what all those economic indicators are. I certainly couldn’t do it (and neither could they). But here’s how the show listed the 10 indicators that reflect our financial fortunes:

1. The average manufacturing-worker workweek
2. Unemployment claims
3. Orders for consumer goods
4. Vendor performance
5. Orders for nondefense capital goods
6. Building permits
7. The level of the S&P 500
8. The inflation-adjusted measure of the money supply
9. The interest-rate spread between the 10-year Treasury note and the fed funds rate
10. The expectations portion of the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index

These indicators, the host explained, are compiled into a composite index that is used to predict economic activity in future months.

On top of the already challenging financial reversals facing HME providers on Jan. 1 — when the 36-month oxygen cap kicks in along with an across-the-board 9.5 percent reimbursement cut — the year’s first few months, and all the rest of them, are shaping up as some of the most critical in the industry’s history. In fact, according to provider Alan Landauer, CEO of Landauer Metropolitan in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and chairman of the American Association for Homecare, “Be aware [that] if you are a major Medicare provider, the next six months will be the hardest we’ve ever lived through.”

With all the bad news, I decided to consult my own indicator about the industry’s tough road: my mother. A business major in college, my 80-something mom is particularly astute when it comes to money, and at the first hint of Wall Street’s meltdown she told me she had made arrangements to protect her investments.

But when I asked if she knew about what is going on with Medicare, her primary insurance, she was at a loss. While she was aware of how her Medicare Advantage plan and its coverage of the prescription drugs she takes might change, she had no knowledge of what might happen to some of her friends and relatives who rely on Medicare’s home oxygen benefit come January. She didn’t know about competitive bidding. She had no clue that, should she need home medical equipment, she could end up with little choice of the companies that provide it, and that all of them would be hit with a big reimbursement cut next year.

And if my mom is any indicator, I’ll bet most of your patients are also in the dark about any changes that could be taking place with their Medicare DMEPOS benefit. Therein lies both your challenge and your opportunity: Let your patients know what is happening to your company and how your services might have to change based on Medicare’s new cuts and new rules.

There has been widespread reporting in the consumer press about Medicare Advantage, not so much about Medicare’s DME program, with the exception, of course, of fraud and abuse. It’s past time for seniors to know what’s really happening. Tell them, then get them involved in helping you to sort out the situation with Congress — and in sending your company’s economic indicators in the right direction.