Legislative, Regulatory Issues Get Top Response at Recent Meetings

ATLANTA — Legislative issues dominated recently concluded
conferences for Texas-based The MED Group and Michigan-based
Essentially Women. The two group purchasing organizations each
attracted about 300 attendees and vendors as the industry’s
providers hunt for remedies to business uncertainties about
competitive bidding and
health care reform.

At the 2010 Leadership Summit in Jacksonville, Fla., MED Group
officials put on their largest meeting ever according to Mike
McKillip, MED’s director, business solutions and events. By
combining the group’s Respiratory and Rehab Summits, MED was able
to save time and money for attendees. “Our members are deeply
engaged in everything legislative, regulatory or anything that may
drive a wedge into their businesses,” said McKillip, “so, as you
can imagine, quite a bit of networking and discussion revolved
around those areas.”

Meanwhile, Oxford, Mich.-based Essentially Women held its Focus
on the Future 2010 conference in Louisville, Ky., the group’s tenth
annual educational conference and trade show. In 2011, Essentially
Women will head to the Renaissance Hotel in Glendale, Ariz., from
April 4-6.

Cindy Ciardo, who serves as manager of vendor services for the
women’s health buying group, reported that evaluations for the
Kentucky show came back positive for most seminars, which ranged
from driving retail sales to business technology.
Government/reimbursement issues were hot topics, Ciardo said,
especially concerning coverage and reimbursement policies for
breast prostheses and lymphedema pumps. According to Ciardo, who is
also CEO of Milwaukee-based Knueppel HealthCare Services, the
biggest concern among attendees was “meeting all the federal
regulations and keeping up with new legislation.”

Ranked by HME providers taking part in HomeCare’s
2010 Forecast
Survey, competitive bidding topped the list of business
concern, followed by worries about staying in business, the oxygen
cap, health care reform and “all the new DMEPOS
regulations/audits.”