Ready to Take Off?

• By David Kopf
• Jul 01, 2008

Our 2008 HME handbook gives you a launch pad for hitting new heights.

With the funding climate the way it is, you need to explore new horizons. Well, your launch pad is ready — welcome to the second annual HME Handbook edition of HME Business.

In this issue we’ve studied 18 opportunities for expanding your business that are well worth investigating. They include new ways to serve patients needs in bariatrics, home access, bath safety, oxygen and home sleep testing, to name a few.

Moreover, we’ve also looked at ways you can cut costs, raise efficiencies, and increase margins and revenues through cash sales and software strategies, as well as how to deal with regulatory issues, such as getting CMS accreditation, submitting a competitive bid, and fighting competitive bidding.

To help you get the most out of this year’s installment of the HME Handbook, we’ve organized and designed it in an even easier to use format than last year’s installment. For starters, we have organized the main articles so that they break down each of the key considerations when exploring these 18 topics. Also, to help ensure you easily recall critical concepts and pieces of information from each article, we’ve outlined them in the left-hand margin of each story. We’ve also included handy references to help you learn more about these opportunities on the Web and elsewhere.

Best of all, this information isn’t being handed down from on high. These tips and techniques are coming straight from your peers, HME providers themselves who have solid track records in the various topics discussed. Likewise, we’ve also received input from various industry experts who have hands-on experience with these subjects.

The result: an HME Handbook that is easy to use, easy to remember and will serve as a year-long reference just like last month’s annual Buyer’s Guide.

“Curiouser and Curiouser”
Speaking of the current funding climate, if you’re like me, then you probably feel like Alice falling down Lewis Carroll’s surreal rabbit hole every time you get the latest news from Capitol Hill. Since the start of this year, we have learned that two sets of university economists outlined several problems with national competitive bidding.

CMS brushed off those warnings, pushed forward and awarded round one contracts. In an “off with their heads”moment CMS disqualified 63 percent of the bids. More than 150 HME providers complained their bids were disqualified from NCB because of “irregularities.” (Or is that mistakes?)
With that issue left unresolved, CMS publicly listed the contract winners for round one’s CBAs and categories (look in our August issue for round one analysis). CMS awarded some bidders across multiple categories and CBAs, which forced out some local players. CMSalso chose median pricing rather than the lowest bids.. An average 26 percent cut was made to fee schedules.

Those developments, along with industry lobbying efforts, finally caught enough law makers’ attention that Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) lambasted CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems during a May House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee meeting by telling him “The system is somewhere between flawed and lousy,” and then labeling Weems a “useless witness.” Since then, both a Senate and House Bill (S.3144 and H.R. 6252) were introduced, calling for at least an 18-month delay for implementation of competitive bidding.

Are these last developments light at the end of the NCB tunnel? That’s tough to say — round two looms just around the corner — which is why wise providers know that they must continue to look for new options while fighting competitive bidding.

And that brings us full circle back to this HME Handbook issue. Read through the various alternatives for reaching out to new patients and growing your business. You’re bound to find some possibilities that will help you achieve liftoff.

This article originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of HME Business.