The Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of America (AMEPA) has introduced a Competitive Bidding Patient Advocacy Line that provides a toll-free hotline for patients and caregivers to connect quickly with legislators about the need for quality home medical equipment and timely services.
Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) collected $18.8 million in Medicare overpayments for durable medical equipment during fiscal year 2010, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' first annual report to Congress released Sept. 30. That can be a lot of money for many providers, but it is a miniscule amount when compared with total spending by Medicare for DME.
Birmingham, Alabama - Cahaba Media Group (CMG), headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, has acquired HomeCare magazine, homecaremag.com, and the HomeCare Monday e-newsletter from Penton Media as of September 20, 2011. Terms were not disclosed.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — West Medical Center in Cleveland has something no other hospital in the country has — Max-Wellness. The retailer opened its new hospital retail concept within the acute-care hospital, part of the Lake Health system, yesterday.
WASHINGTON — A proposed rule to redefine "durable" medical equipment could mean more trouble for the industry, according to attorneys with King & Spalding, who warn that it is "sweeping in scope" and could reduce the number of DME products CMS covers.
LAKE FOREST, Calif. — Rumors have abounded since the news surfaced that Apria Healthcare has struck a deal with insurance carrier Humana to be its provider of choice for HME.
ST. LOUIS — United Seating & Mobility announced Friday that it has acquired Central Kentucky Mobility and will merge the company's complex mobility business with USM. USM/CKM will continue services for Lexington and Louisville, Ky., as well as the central, eastern and southern parts of the state.
ATLANTA — At its annual meeting in Savannah, Ga., July 17, the Georgia Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers elected new officers, including: Phillip Stoudenmire of Georgia Home Medical Equipment, president; David Petsch of Petsch Respiratory Services, treasurer; and Bill Cheek of Carmichaels Home Medical Equipment, secretary. Hi-Tech Healthcare's Todd Tyson is past president.
DUNCANVILLE, Texas — Kevin Hill, RRT, has been appointed president of the Texas Alliance of Home Care Services (TAHCS), replacing Barry Johnson, who was recently named president of AMEPA.
With over 30 years' experience in the DME industry, Hill is the owner of CPS Medical in Tyler, Texas.
ORLANDO, Fla. — In a message sent on a neighbor's borrowed laptop, management of the Medical Equipment Suppliers Association (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas) said its office in Orlando, Fla. — the lightning capital of the world — took a direct hit in a fierce electrical storm July 15.
The strike caused smoldering in the ceiling and damaged electrical and phone lines.
ATLANTA — This year's Medtrade conference, Oct. 24-27 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, will feature two new session tracks on "Audits: Pre- and Post-Payment" and "Non-Medicare and Medicaid Markets."
Check them out at www.medtrade.com/medtrade/conference/conference-schedule.
ROCKVILLE, Md. — Roberts Home Medical is conducting a short survey on the use of respiratory therapists in preparation for a presentation called "Home Care RTs: Is Anybody Still There?" at the American Association for Respiratory Care International Congress in November.
Take the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/dmerespiratorytherapistuse.
PLAINVIEW, N.Y. — Fastrack Healthcare Systems announced Friday that via a Web portal, physicians, clinicians, sales representatives and others can enter new referrals, patient orders, review reports and more depending on permissions set up by providers using its new Referral Management System.
ST. LOUIS — Responsive Respiratory has launched a free oxygen app for mobile devices (Android and iPhone). The O2 To Go! Cylinder Duration Calculator is a handy tool for technicians, therapists and even patients to use, according to the company, and addresses the common patient question: "How long will my cylinder last?"
PHOENIX — Vantage Mobility International has launched its new website as part of a year-long brand refresh campaign "designed to reflect VMI as a contemporary, tech-savvy and compassionate company," according to a release.
New options include a section to educate first-time buyers on various wheelchair conversions and an interactive "Build-A-Van" section where people can build their own VMI wheelchair van and receive a quote from a dealer.
ATLANTA — The thing about insurance is that you know how good it is only when you need to use it. So, in the wake of recent tornadoes, fires and floods, how good is your insurance?
It's a question HME companies should be asking, perhaps even more so than other small businesses, according to insurance experts. Although HME providers have some commonalities with other commercial businesses, they also have some unique insurance needs.
Part 2 of a Four-Part Series: The following questions and answers from health care attorney Jeff Baird of Brown & Fortunato are Part 2 of a four-part series addressing prepayment reviews; post-payment audits; a comparison of reviews conducted by the DME MACs with audits conducted by the ZPICs; and in the final installment, contractor abuses and the steps that the
After campaigning for months against CMS' "fatally flawed" competitive bidding design, University of Maryland economics professor Peter Cramton has posted a 12-minute video, "Medicare Auction Reform," which describes the problems as he and others see them.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Nationwide insurance carrier Humana has selected Apria Healthcare as its provider of choice for home medical equipment, according to the giant insurer's website.
Some small independents, which are already staggering under the threat of competitive bidding, amped-up audits and Medicaid woes, said the agreement is another big blow.
WASHINGTON — Rumors of HME cuts turned real last week as government officials continued to shuffle ideas around on the nation's financial predicament. According to a leaked document, allegedly part of Vice President Joe Biden's debt ceiling talks, three cost-cutting ideas targeting HME are on the table:
