Editor’s Inbox

Stand Up for Respiratory Home Care

Respiratory home care reimbursement is one of the solutions to totally improve the delivery of home health care in our nation. Medicare pays only for equipment but not for the cardiorespiratory assessment of a patient or modality of therapy treatment given at home by a respiratory therapist. An experienced respiratory professional knows if the patient needs the current therapy or not! And respiratory care must be practiced by a respiratory therapist, not a nurse!

Everyone must strive to get this approved in Congress. Our patients, our children, our own post-retirement health care depend on it. It is a very bright future — and I believe it is going to be achieved.
— Frank Alvarez, RRT, CPFT, president, Alvacare II Inc.; Respiratory Clinician-Let’s Breathe Oxygen and Medical Equipment Inc., Miami

Use What You Already Have

I couldn’t agree more with [Shelly Prial’s] thoughts related to the HME provider looking for different opportunities and at the same time, leveraging something they already have (“Shelly Sez,” June 2003). The thing I find most frustrating is that a great deal of the HME providers don’t leverage the biggest asset they have, namely their patient base. We are seeing a significant shift of consumer buying towards the retail channels. This is business that classically stayed with the HME dealers. The unfortunate thing is that this business is generally cash sales and has retail margins attached.

Marketing to the whole patient, as opposed to accepting a referral for a third-party reimbursed (short margin) item is critical in helping the provider to offset some of the sting associated with Medicare/Medicaid.

[Shelly] makes the point to leverage inventory and use it to sell in other channels. I totally agree. However, before [providers] go outside their core business, they should make sure they are getting the maximum wallet share from their existing patients.
— Mike Perry, vice president and general manager, Invacare Supply Group, Holliston, Mass.

Customer Service Often Taken for Granted

I wanted to thank you for both mentioning my business in HomeCare Monday and for the wonderful article in a recent edition of the magazine. This is truly the first time the industry has had a cover story on service (“What About Service?” April 2003) — an important issue, but one it seems people often take for granted.
— Louis Feuer, MA, MSW, president, Dynamic Seminars & Consulting, Melbourne, Fla.

E-mail your letters to Editor-in-Chief Gail Walker at [email protected]