Handle with Care
It's been 40 years since a debate over health care coverage for seniors gave birth to Medicare, and while lifts, ramps and transfer systems have come
Author
Marjory Garrison
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Form and Function
In today's patient aids market, looks can be everything. According to manufacturers of ADLs (aids to daily living), ambulatory aids and bath safety products, -
Details, Details
Caring for patients in the home is all in the details, according to leading HME manufacturers. Beyond the wheelchair or the oxygen concentrator, there -
Software
Waking Up to Bed System Sales
Manufacturers of beds and support surfaces have slept easily over the years, but they're about to face a wake-up call. New FDA guidelines for reduced -
Software
Still Making Sparks
The science behind electrotherapy is a lot like the science behind baking bread: You can add new ingredients, but the way the dough rises doesn't change -
Software
Home Care Gets a Lift
Manufacturers of lifts, ramps and transfer devices spend a lot of time brooding over how their products coordinate with the other equipment used by home-based -
HME Products
Image Is Everything
Despite a massive government crackdown on fraud in the power mobility sector, demand for scooters still grows, offering a viable option for an aging, mobile population. And such unequivocal demand remains the market’s primary driver. “As Medicare continues to review the K0011 claims and requests for power chairs are being denied, dealers and individuals are looking to the scooter market to provide an alternative,” says Al Thieme, president of Amigo Mobility. Even though the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has retracted the DMERCs’ power wheelchair policy clarification issued in December, many in the industry predict a certain level of scrutiny to continue. “I think the scooter market is going to start expanding more because of [Medicare’s scrutiny of] power wheelchairs,” says DuWayne Kramer, president... -
HME Products
Big Demand, Big Market
America’s weight gain has meant bigger wheelchairs and bigger beds in the home care market, along with bigger profits for manufacturers and providers of bariatric products. Leaders in the market point out that it has been five years since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared obesity an “epidemic” in the United States, but growth in bariatrics has yet to slow — and they predict little change in the near future. “Demand is getting higher and higher,” says Jim Lein, president of Dalton Medical. “In the next few years, we’ll have at least another 5 to 10 percent growth on top of general market growth, so that’s 15 to 20 percent growth compared to growth in regular [durable medical equipment] of 8 to 10... -
Operations
The Power to Heal
Manufacturers of beds and support surfaces are seeing their market expand, and they think HME providers who sell their equipment will, too — especially if that equipment is going to bariatric patients. The beds and support surfaces market — growing by leaps and bounds, according to industry leaders — is only going to get stronger, and product makers attribute much of this strength to the obesity epidemic in the United States. “There’s been a marked increase in bariatric patients,” says Leigh Smith, director of marketing for Mellen Air. “Where before the bariatric bed frame was a peripheral item, now it is a necessity in the marketplace because of the change in the medical profile of our country.” In fact, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona... -
Rise and Shine
It would be impossible to doze through the noise being made recently in the sleep-disorder-products market. What once was a small, overlooked product