industry

HME

  • Bush Signs Medicare Reform Bill As Industry Braces for Impact

    Washington After a months-long battle on Capitol Hill, President Bush signed Medicare reform legislation into law Dec. 8. Among its provisions, The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 mandates a five-year Consumer Price Index freeze for DME beginning this year. It phases in DME competitive bidding in the nation’s top 10 metropolitan statistical areas in 2007 with expansion to the top 80 MSAs in 2009, after which the Department of Health and Human Services could extend competitive bidding nationwide. Beginning in 2005, the Medicare reform law calls for reimbursement cuts on a string of items, including oxygen, wheelchairs, nebulizers, diabetic suppplies, hospital beds and air mattresses, based on the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) median. The new law also reduces reimbursement…
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  • DMERCs Issue Power Wheelchair Policy Clarification

    Baltimore Following the 10-point initiative called Operation Wheeler Dealer by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services/Office of Inspector General to curb fraud and abuse of the Medicare power wheelchair benefit, last month the four durable medical equipment regional carriers announced a clarification of the local medical review policy for power wheelchairs and the adoption of “a consistent approach” to medical review of power wheelchair claims. The Medicare Coverage Issues Manual/60-9 states that Medicare will cover a wheelchair if the patient’s condition would otherwise confine him to a bed or chair. A power wheelchair is covered if the patient is unable to operate a wheelchair manually. According to the DMERCs’ new clarification, power wheelchairs will be covered only for “patients who are nonambulatory.” In bulletins…
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  • Latest HME News

  • Provider News

    Genesis Health Ventures Completes Spin-Off, Changes Name to NeighborCare: Kennett Square, Pa.-based Genesis Health Ventures (GHV) has completed the spin-off of its eldercare and rehabilitation businesses into a separate publicly traded company, Genesis HealthCare Corp., and has changed its name to NeighborCare. NeighborCare, an institutional pharmacy provider, also provides infusion therapy services, home medical equipment, respiratory therapy services and community-based retail pharmacies. The company serves 32 states and the District of Columbia. Centura Health at Home to Launch Telehealth Program: Centura Health at Home, a Denver provider of home care, hospice, oxygen and home medical equipment, will launch a pilot telehealth program designed to reduce hospitalizations and emergency room visits for congestive heart failure patients. Medical products used in the patient’s home, such as an…
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  • The Sweet RING! of Retail

    How does your HME business compare to the industry norm when it comes to retail? To find out, check the following results of HomeCare‘s exclusive Retail Survey to determine the industry’s retailing benchmarks. An accompanying analysis by HME retail expert Jack Evans of Global Media Marketing looks at progress the industry has made in retail since HomeCare last conducted this survey in 2001 (not much, Evans says) and the opportunities that exist (a lot of them, he points out) in what could be (if you approach it correctly) a very lucrative area. A successful and profitable retail showroom for home medical equipment providers is not something that magically appears out of thin air. Rather, it is the result of careful store layout, a thorough understanding…
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  • 10 Merchandising and Design DO’s for Home Care Retail

    The philosophy of designing a contemporary, successful home health care store is based on addres-sing the kind of image that today’s home medical equipment providers want to convey. Stores should communicate caring, warmth, convenience and information — all the things that customers are depending on you to provide. These attributes can be achieved through the effective use of store layout, product variety, decor and, of course, knowledgeable personnel. Using these tools, HME dealers can successfully overcome the “identity crisis,” long associated with home health care products, that comes from consumers’ lack of awareness that these products exist — and the fact that people would rather not have to use them. The challenge for providers is to educate both the patient and the caregiver, and to…
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  • Join HomeCare at Medtrade Spring for : Trading Spaces, HME Style

    Led by Jack Evans and Ed Lemar, two of the industry’s leading retail showroom designers, this special hands-on workshop will teach you how to redesign your own HME showroom. You will see what successful home health retail stores look like and how they: Once you’ve learned about these key components, work with others to “build” a better showroom, and talk with the session leaders about improving your own store. Toss out your old gondolas! Open up your towering shadowed aisles! Learn how to make your showrooms inviting, open spaces that can work to generate sales! Wednesday, March 17 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Medtrade Spring Las Vegas Convention Center Sponsored by HomeCare® “A successful and profitable retail showroom is not something that magically appears out…
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  • Medicare Reform Bill Passes, Includes Competitive Bidding

    WASHINGTON — After months of intense debate and political infighting, including a pre-dawn vote in the House of Representatives and a day-long showdown in the Senate, Congress passed a sweeping Medicare reform bill in late November. At press time, President Bush was expected to sign the measure into law on Dec. 8. Negotiated in conference committee since the summer, the final version of the reform package is a compromise agreement that gained late favor after endorsement by AARP, the powerful seniors group with 35 million members. The main component of the legislation, which marks the first major overhaul of Medicare in its 38-year history, is a new prescription drug benefit for the 40 million beneficiaries now covered by the vast government program. But the bill’s…
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  • AAHomecare Responds to National Wheeler Dealer Article

    Alexandria, Va. The American Association for Homecare reiterated its opinion that there should be “zero tolerance” for Medicare fraud and abuse involving power wheelchairs, in response to a Nov. 12 Associated Press news article that detailed 50 separate power wheelchair fraud investigations launched as part of the government crackdown known as “Operation Wheeler Dealer.” The AP article noted that the durable medical equipment industry aggressively markets power wheelchairs, adding that the number of Medicare power wheelchair claims rose from about 55,000 in 1999 to almost 170,000 this year. In response, AAHomecare said it views the increase in claims as a positive development. “As wheelchair technology has improved and the beneficiary population has aged, this increase is a clear sign that more and more Americans are…
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  • 2004 Forecast

    The turbulent legislative and regulatory issues that sent home medical equipment providers on a screaming roller-coaster ride this year apparently haven’t affected their buying plans. According to the results of HomeCare’s annual reader survey, HME/DME dealers are forging ahead to 2004 with intentions to buy products in a pattern that has changed little over the past several years. Manual wheelchairs remain in the No. 1 spot on providers’ product shopping list, followed by ambulatory aids and nebulizers, bath safety products and beds and mattresses. But for the first time, power wheelchairs broke into the list’s Top 10 territory, reflecting a general increase in consumer awareness of — and demand for — the products that can improve their daily lives. In fact, providers told us they…
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  • The Outlook for HME: 2004-2008

    Based on a report presented at Medtrade 2003 by Wallace Weeks of The Weeks Group, the following summary looks ahead to market growth, competition and other factors that will affect the HME industry from 2004 to 2008. While the report was prepared before Congress’ passage of a Medicare reform bill that includes competitive bidding and reimbursement cuts within this period, the good news, according to Weeks, is that the industry has plenty to be optimistic about. To put the long-range preview in perspective, Weeks first highlights the “wide-angle” view, which is an overview of what the industry may go through in the next five years. The “telephoto” view zooms in on specific segments of the industry to examine the results we could see by 2008….
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  • Cool Show, Hot Topic

    How many technicians does it take to transform an ordinary Mercedes sport utility vehicle into a handicap-accessible street rod? Try five — and in seven days, with a $3,000 budget. At least, that’s the case when the transformation occurs on The Discovery Channel’s hit program Monster Garage. Headed by Jesse James, a custom motorcycle builder and designer and owner of West Coast Choppers in Long Beach, Calif., the crew included Warren Chalker, a welder and engineer with Lancaster, Calif.-based standing-device manufacturer Prime Engineering; Scott Deacon, president of La Canada, Calif.-based vehicle-modification company Advanced Mobility; Mike Montenegro, automotive designer and owner of Hesperia, Calif.-based Montenegro Designs; Ray Paprota, a paraplegic NASCAR Craftsmen Truck driver from Birmingham, Ala.; and Ed Sandoz, a quadriplegic mechanical engineer from Upton,…
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  • CMS Eases Supplier Number Moratorium

    The home care industry recently received some positive news. Thomas A. Scully, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, authorized the National Supplier Clearinghouse to begin approving applications for those providers who have submitted their enrollment application and have passed their site visit, signaling an ease in the provider-number moratorium. This development is the culmination of months of hard work by the entire home care industry, and marks a significant victory for law-abiding durable medical equipment providers and the patients we serve every day! Earlier this fall, CMS announced “Operation Wheeler Dealer” to help prevent Medicare fraud and abuse. The initiative came on the heels of an isolated Houston-based wheelchair scam, in which corrupt doctors submitted Medicare claims for power wheelchairs that were…
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