Features
Heard at Medtrade
There were all sorts of hot topics discussed at Medtrade 2005, held Oct. 18-20 in Atlanta. As usual, attendees have their own feelings about the issues:
On growing business: “We're looking at all of our
product lines and looking at expanding in cash. Any direction other
than Medicare is a good direction at this point, not counting on
only Medicare dollars. The retail area has been good for us, so
we're wanting to expand that, whether it's cash power … or
the whole variety of products [like] support stockings and wellness
items that we're looking at to continue the cash flow.”
— Kim Gustafson, sales/marketing manager, Health E-Quip,
Hutchinson, Kan.
On the supplier quality standards: “It's very scary
with accreditation and the new standards that Medicare has come up
with. We're in a small area, so I think we're going to have a
little more time to think about it and deal with it, but we're
going to have to get a lot more efficient and stay on top of our
business more and more every day. We think HME is going to be a
growth area for our pharmacy. About 20 percent of our business now
is HME — hospital beds, home oxygen, CPAP, wound supply, just
about everything — and we would like to grow
that.”
— Chris Staker, owner, Staker's Service Drugs, Portsmouth,
Ohio
On provider productivity: “If competitive bidding
goes through in its current form, there will have to be a whole new
level of sophistication out there for providers to survive. That
sophistication is going to have to be manifested in business
operations and increasing productivity every single day, not just
doing it now but constantly reevaluating how things are done and
finding better, cheaper and faster ways to do things — and to
be able to document that while maintaining quality care and
profitability.”
— Bently Goodwin, CEO, RemitData, Dallas, Texas
