Good News, Bad News on HME Salaries

ATLANTA — It’s the classic good news-bad news situation
for home medical equipment providers: Salaries seem to be holding
steady — but that’s for employees who have kept their
jobs.

Over the past 12 months, nearly one in three HME providers
participating in HomeCare’s 2009 Salary & Benefits
Survey have laid off employees.

That statistic and others across the survey show without a doubt
that the industry’s tumultuous conditions, worsened by the nation’s
sputtering economy, have extracted a heavy toll.

Consider the following numbers for providers in this year’s
survey group:

• 31% have laid off employees.
• 38% have frozen salaries.
• 33% have left positions vacant.
• 57% have made changes to health benefits.
• 53% gave raises vs. 84% in 2008.
• 29% have dropped bonuses.
• 26% have reduced commissions.

While only half as many (15%) anticipate layoffs next year, a
lot hinges on the outcome of competitive bidding, providers
said.

“We can’t plan ahead,” one frustrated provider wrote in. “It’s a
problem … Health care reform can increase business, but
competitive bidding can put me out of business.”

Another summed it up this way: “The question is not ‘will we
hire’ in 2010. The question is ‘will we remain in business.’”

Read more — and find out how your salary stacks up —
in HomeCare‘s September issue (2009 HME
Industry Salary & Benefits Survey: Cold Comfort).