Features
Heard at the Show
As usual, providers attending Medtrade Spring expressed their opinions about a number of the industry's most pressing issues. Following are some of their comments on a range of topics they say are chief concerns.
On certification“When you get into custom rehab equipment, you better know
what the heck you're doing or you should not be in it. We're out
there for the end user. There are lots of unqualified people in
this business [who] should not be, no doubt about it. When you
start getting more certification, it's going to help clean up the
industry a lot.”
— Gary Salazar, rehab technology specialist, Mobility
Giver Inc., Huntington Beach, Calif.
“Reimbursement and access to care is the chief concern.
Third-party [payers are] reducing reimbursement, and they're
choosing what they want to reimburse based on prostituting the
industry instead of the real care and services that we
provide.”
— Scot Silber, R.Ph., CEO, Green Valley Drugs, Home Health
and Physician Sales, Henderson, Nev.
“I'm looking for technology. I want to use technology to
maintain our operations and reduce our expenses. I don't want to
cut people because of the scare of competitive bidding and
everything else that's going on. We still need to provide a service
… and my main concern is the patient back home. I think
technology can help, so I'm going to use it as much as I
can.”
— Velma Goertzen, RN, general manager, Health-E-Quip,
Hutchinson, Kan.
“I think those individuals who [keep doing] business like
they've been doing it for years are going to have some trouble.
There are tremendous opportunities for those who want to get into
the business and actually respond to what the market wants instead
of what they think the market wants. There is a real
opportunity to take advantage of the changes in the industry now
because you're going to be ahead of your competition that is locked
into a way of doing things.”
— Bill Talley, president, Freedom Medical Solutions,
Fayetteville, Ga.
