Lincare CFO Paul Gabos doesn't think much of CMS' handling of competitive bidding.
competitive bidding
The scooter market is one of the most multi-dimensional segments of the home medical equipment industry. Look at Internet marketing and bundling packages to increase retail sales.
Industry consultant Andrea Stark of MiraVista LLC offers a clear explanation of how CMS' new reasonable useful lifetime (RUL) policy for stationary and portable oxygen equipment affects HME suppliers.
Even as CMS maintains it hasn't received many complaints about competitive bidding, problems continue to surface. AMEPA reported one from a North Miami, Fla., woman who just wanted to breathe.
When Chris Kinard asked Medtrade Spring attendees to describe the HME industry's current condition in one word, some of the responses he got were "catastrophe," "chaos," "uncertainty," "change" and "craziness."
Here's what a sample of providers attending the annual conference and expo had to say.
"Roughly 100 days into it, I can't tell you yet we're a survivor," Geller said at a Medtrade Spring session called "Round 1 Lessons Learned."
Oxygen delivery systems may be the least understood and least appreciated machines in the eyes of government regulators.
The CPAP market looks a lot like the rest of the home care industry these days: full of potential mixed with uncertainty.
How are things going with competitive bidding? It depends who you ask.
Those of us at the Florida Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers were feeling rather proud of ourselves. We had the audacity to sue the State of Florida over competitive bidding for Medicaid DME and actually won!