Pricing Pressure

Technology for home care beds and support surfaces is consistently advancing, with new products in these sectors focused on positive patient outcomes — and cost-efficient options.

Patient need is a driving factor, according to Jonathan Schein, Sunrise Medical's product manager for support surfaces.

“Ultimately,” says Schein, “the patient's health is our primary driver in developing products, but understanding that the provider is also one of our customers, we keep their kind of business model in mind in pricing and the other services that we offer.”

While Schein and other experts say there are numerous goals for the new products introduced in these markets, price is an important part of the equation. Unfortunately, they explain, reimbursement rates don't always reflect the most efficacious therapy.

Gregg Garland, senior vice president of support surface sales for The Roho Group, notes that price often “plays a large role” in product selection. Particularly with the support surface market, he points out, manufacturers and providers are under increasing price pressure “due to the current reimbursement process … lower-end products are reimbursed at the same rate that much more sophisticated systems are reimbursed.”

According to Mike Irvine, Invacare Corp.'s product manager for beds and therapeutic support surfaces, “With therapeutic support surfaces, especially in the Group 2 market … price is the driving factor [for a lot of people].” On the other hand, he says, many providers are becoming more aware of the need for quality and recognize that certain products are more effective than others.

“[Providers] really do want to have their patients on the best products that they can offer, even if it costs a little bit more,” he explains.

Jim Acker, vice president of sales and marketing for Blue Chip Medical Products, says the focus on support surface cost fluctuates. “The industry is fickle because it just goes up and down in its interest in quality. Fortunately, we are starting to see people becoming more interested in high-end, quality products that are durable and result in a positive outcome,” he says.

The past mentality of “use it until it breaks” is changing as HME providers experience the correlation between patient satisfaction and referral source satisfaction, Acker says.