NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 18, 2013—According to Getahn Ward of The Tennessean, the federal Medicare program has dropped nearly a third of the companies chosen to continue supplying home medical equipment to beneficiaries statewide, leaving even fewer suppliers as part of its controversial competitive bidding program set to kick off in Tennessee in less than two weeks.
HomeCare News
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 14, 2013—On June 7, NHIC Corp. released a notice titled “Detailed Written Orders and Face-to-Face Encounters” informing DME providers of changes to documentation requirements for face-to-face encounters (Read Order Here).
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 14, 2013—In less than a month the congressional letter to CMS Administrator Marilynn Tavenner (Click here to read.) asking for a delay implementing Round 2 has gained the support of a majority of the House.
ATLANTA, Ga., June 14, 2013—GF Health Products, Inc. (Graham-Field) announces that it will acquire substantially all of the assets of Hausted Patient Handling Systems, LLC (Hausted), a portfolio company of 3 Rivers Capital, LLC (3RC). Hausted is a manufacturer of patient handling equipment, including stretchers and chairs, used by hospital patient transport, radiology, outpatient, emergency and operating rooms within health care facilities.
ALBANY, N.Y., June 13, 2013—As reported by PR.com, analysis by Transparency Market Research shows that the global home medical equipment consumption pattern will depend on demographic and epidemiological development. Increased efforts in the fight against chronic illnesses such as respiratory diseases, kidney disorders and cancer will boost the demand for home therapeutic devices.
Sign up to attend the webinar “Retail Sales vs. Billing Medicare: How to aggressively increase retail sales while avoiding problems with Medicare” to be held June 20 from 2:30–4:00 p.m. ET. It will be hosted by Jeffrey S. Baird, Esq., Brown & Fortunato, P.C. (For webinar summary and registration, click here.)
WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (June 7, 2013) - dmetrain’s Sales Training Webinar Series kicks off with “Making the Most of the Time with Your Referral Sources” on July 23. Eric Kline, president of HMESalesPro, will present the session to dmetrain customers during an hour-long interactive forum. This is the first of three sessions devoted entirely to sales training.
MUNDELEIN, Ill., June 14, 2013—Officials from Medline Industries, Inc. joined Mayor Rahm Emanuel last week to announce that Medline will be expanding its e-Commerce and Information Services (IS) division to Chicago, creating 35-40 new jobs in the city of Chicago.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 13, 2013—As reported by PR Newswire, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in March 2013, Baby Boomers are twice as likely to use an assistive walking device than the generation before them.
Sign up to attend the webinar “Retail Sales vs. Billing Medicare: How to aggressively increase retail sales while avoiding problems with Medicare” to be held June 20 from 2:30–4:00 p.m. ET. Medicare is broke. It went broke taking care of 23 million of the the Greatest Generation. There is a tsunami of 78 million Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) who are retiring at the rate of 10,000 per day.
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 6, 2013—In an anemic effort at the eleventh hour to share much-needed information about Round 2 with all of the healthcare personnel affected, CMS has scheduled a series of four webinars for, as the agency describes, “physicians, social workers, discharge planners, and anyone else who refers beneficiaries for DMEPOS supplies.”
BALTIMORE, Md., June 5, 2013—As reported on the PRNewswire-USNewswire, Medicare’s national bidding program for durable medical equipment (DME) is violating its own rules and may endanger beneficiaries after awarding contracts to winning bidders who haven’t qualified for proper state and local licenses or accreditations, according to the American Association for Homecare.
TEMPE, Ariz., June 6, 2013—Ottobock is pleased to announce the launch of its new OA Restore brace designed to help bring non-surgical relief to patients diagnosed with mild to moderate medial or lateral osteoarthritis (OA), as well as patients who have OA in combination with ligament instability. This is in continuation of the efforts and investments that Ottobock is making to strengthen its bracing portfolio following the successful launch of ACL and post op braces.
LAKE NORMAN, N.C., June 3, 2013—“It has come to our attention that the government put out a competitive bid that may drastically affect a benefit for people that are diabetic and use their Medicare Insurance to help receive supplies for testing their blood sugar levels and staying healthy,” said John White, The National Association of Conservative Seniors (NAOCS) founder and president.
WATERLOO, Iowa, June 6, 2013—At a Regulatory Fairness Hearing hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration on June 6, healthcare advocates and medical equipment suppliers testified about the potentially costly effects of Medicare’s competitive bidding program. They emphasized the damaging consequences this arbitrary new bidding program for Medicare contracts will inevitably have on Medicare beneficiaries and on the economy.
CENTER LINE, Mich., June 7, 2013—After decades in the durable medical equipment industry, Binson’s Home Health Care Centers is celebrating their 60th anniversary in a big way: with an expansion that includes hiring up to 100 new employees, due in part to being awarded a multiple Medicare competitive bid contracts.
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 6, 2013—AAHomecare reports that, according to a letter Humana sent out recently to its members, starting July 1 the company will use rates from CMS’ national bidding program to reimburse out-of-network DME providers. Members are advised to change providers if theirs is unwilling to accept the lower rates.
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J., May 15, 2013—Authentidate Holding Corp., a provider of secure Web-based software applications and telehealth products and services for healthcare organizations, announces that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has exercised their second option to extend the term of the contract for Home Telehealth Devices and Services with Authentidate. The term of this option year begins May 15, 2013 and extends the contract to May 31, 2014.
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 31. 2013—AAHomecare said goodbye to several directors from its Board of Directors and welcomed others during its annual membership meeting.
The webinar “Value-Added Services vs. Prohibited Beneficiary Inducement: When is the line crossed?” will be held Tuesday, June 4, from 2:30–4 p.m. ET. It is perfectly acceptable for a DME provider to provide services to its patients that the provider's competitors do not. This is good business. These are classified as value-added services.