Get Out There and Lobby

Every DME/HME provider must join the battle to maintain our business at a profitable level. Home care is under attack because congressmen like Rep. Bill Thomas (who inserted the 36-month oxygen rental cap in the Deficit Reduction Act) do not understand what the average DME provider does for his constituents.

DME providers are not rolling in barrels of dollars as he may think; on the contrary, they usually give their clients more pro bono services than any other facet of the industry. Just think about the number of night or emergency calls you have made in the last year. DME is a service-oriented industry — but service is not reimbursed. In fact, prices have been driven down to such a low level that Medicare itself is becoming a “service” for providers.

Congress has been grumbling because they see so much manufacturing — which made the United States of America the major supplier in the world — going offshore. Now, when reimbursements are so low that U.S. manufacturers can no longer afford to make products domestically, I think the government had better sit up and take notice.

I read in the daily papers that many major companies are downsizing, and I see a myriad of smaller companies following suit. When a worker loses his employment, he may not be able to find another job at the same salary, so, tax revenues go down. He may not find another job for an extended period, so unemployment compensation goes up.

Small business, which for generations has been the largest employer and taxpayer in the country, can no longer provide those tax dollars or jobs. What suffers? The economy! Who suffers? We do!

So when we can, let us all become lobbyists. Let us all go to visit our legislators. Take as many of your customers as possible when you visit your senators or representatives at their home base. Join with me in writing and educating our legislators about home care and your business, both in Washington and your state capital.

Let us develop a strong voice and inform our elected officials that we, too, are partners in this economy. Our businesses should not become their scapegoat. If we do not do this, I am frightened by the consequences.

Whither Privacy?

We are living in an age in which the meaning of privacy has deteriorated. Privacy means “freedom from the intrusion of others into one’s private life or affairs,” at least according to Webster’s dictionary. During my tour of duty with the military (in WWII), all you had to disclose was your name, rank and serial number.

Now it seems to be a daily occurrence that someone has broken into a source of private information stored in a computer somewhere. Be it a bank, credit card company, department store, hotel chain or even the U.S. government, the hackers get in. The secrecy protecting your vital information has been pierced, and knowledge about you has become public information to criminals.

Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis stated, “Privacy is the right to be alone — the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized man.” Yes!

Can the geniuses who designed these behemoths of information, our modern-day computers, find a way to protect our privacy? Every day I read about someone stealing another person’s identity and spending the victim’s hard-earned money. Often, however, I don’t see published when these culprits are apprehended or how they make restitution.

Perhaps we need a universal HIPAA, but will this be any better? If the HIPAA plans have portability, do they also have accountability?

Protect Your Company, Your Customers

I also keep reading about fraud and abuse in the system. This is nothing new. There will always be a minute percentage of people who are dishonest, but the greater bulk of HME providers must not be punished for the few.

If you know of any fraud or abuse taking place, report it. That is how you can protect your business, and how you can protect innocent people from being cheated. It is not un-American to be a whistle-blower.

Sheldon “Shelly” Prial is based in Melbourne, Fla., with Prial Consulting and also serves as the director of government relations for Atlanta-based Graham-Field Health Products. In 1987, he founded the Homecare Providers Co-Op, now part of The VGM Group. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 321/255-3885.