Yes, It Is That Important

I enjoy reading copies of some of the many communications dealers receive from their state HME/DME associations. These organizations are the true grass roots of our industry, and they accomplish a great deal.

The Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services, aka MAMES, sends such a newsletter to its members. In a recent issue, Rose Schafhauser, MAMES executive director, reported that members have been working actively to contact their Congress members at home and in Washington about support of the Hobson-Tanner bill.

MAMES is not alone in this effort. Many state associations, along with AAHomecare and others, are working overtime to see what can be accomplished to get this bill passed. If every reader of HomeCare magazine will take the time to make a personal contact with representatives and senators, we can succeed.

Passage of this bill, which would lessen some effects of competitive bidding, is very important for our industry. If you will contact me, I have the phone numbers available for every senator and representative in Washington, D.C. It is that important, so please act now to become a grassroots lobbyist. Do your part to support this bill and protect our industry.

Novelist Anatole France once said, “It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.” I ask you to act, and to remember another famous quote from Charles de Gaulle: “I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”

CMS Drops CMN for Power Chairs!

Is this a good move on their part?

One of the problems our industry has to contend with is fraud and abuse. Apparently, rather than eliminate it, CMS in its wisdom has decided to remove one way of preventing it.

If a scooter or a power wheelchair can be ordered only by a physician’s prescription, and CMS decides that the patient really did not require one, will the prescribing physician then be responsible? No! All he or she has to say is that “in my medical judgment, that patient required one.”

Fortunately, 98+ percent of HME providers in the country run very straightforward businesses. There is no hanky-panky, and their owners are caring, excellent, professional business entrepreneurs. It is that very small percentage of unscrupulous dealers — the ones who have heaped much shame on the rest of the industry — who will take advantage of the no-CMN requirement.

I am hopeful that when it is pointed out to CMS what they are doing, the officials there will withdraw this error in judgment.

What a Great Job

I find it fascinating being a columnist for HomeCare magazine. I now understand why so many columnists in journals and newspapers keep writing and never seem to run out of ideas. They do not have to think. Their readers tell them what they want to read about.

During the summer, my wife Thelma and I were out of the office for only 10 working days. When we returned, I had more messages on my answering machine and in my e-mail than I would ever have anticipated. Many of them were from providers asking the same questions:

• #8220;Is there still a future for a smaller independent today?” This is usually coupled with “Should I try to sell my business?”
• “Why should I pay money to belong to my state DME association or to AAHomecare? They don’t care about me. All they are interested in is the big guys.”
• “We cannot fight the government. They do just what they please and don’t give a darn for small operators like I am.”

I think about these questions all the time, and at the risk of becoming repetitious, here is my answer: By joining together in our state and national associations, we can accomplish much. There is a role for everyone, and my forecast for our industry’s future is very positive. More to come.

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.