What's HOT in HME

As home medical equipment providers gathered for Medtrade last month in Atlanta, members of HomeCare's Editorial Advisory Board got together to talk about the industry's state of affairs. In the process, these respected HME professionals — the consultants, lobbyists, attorneys and providers that we all turn to for advice — looked ahead to the newest challenges: Medicaid cuts, professionalism and the art of remaining profitable in a tough market. The roundtable exchange also encouraged ideas about how providers can deal with these emerging business concerns, which are certain to affect their companies on a day-to-day basis. A list of the magazine's participating Editorial Advisory Board members accompanies this article. We hope you learn — and benefit — from reading their comments as you prepare for the next hot topics facing HME. The Oct. 8 dialogue began with a question on Medicaid as Board Member Jane Bunch informed the group of cuts in Georgia's program that had been fashioned in a state budget meeting just that morning.

HomeCare: Are Medicaid cuts the industry's next big issue?

Bunch: Definitely. The state of Georgia had a budget meeting this morning where pharmacy was cut 4 percent. Along with that, there was a proposed 3 percent cut for DME, and there are other cuts in Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee where some products in DME lines will no longer be carried in the state Medicaid programs.

In California, Medi-Cal has announced they are no longer covering compression hosiery and, possibly, even [incontinence supplies]. That's a huge change to just totally cut products out of the whole program. And, it looks like every state is going forward with some cuts across the board.

Feuer: I just did some research on the subject, and at least 40 states are having Medicaid cuts. Just as an example, in New Jersey, the income level for a family of four to be on the Medicaid rolls was $30,000, but it's dropping to $4,500. Massachusetts had 50,000 people taken off their Medicaid rolls just in the last few weeks.

If you go through the list of states that are making these changes, there are going to be a tremendous number of low-income working people who are not going to be eligible for Medicaid. I think the cuts are running from 12 percent to 18 percent nationally.

There are many people making a living in this industry from Medicaid, so this has got to come down and affect our industry.