<em>HomeCare</em> Web Poll: More than 30% of Providers Expect to Bail

ATLANTA — The results of HomeCare's May Web poll offer sobering insights into home medical equipment providers' plans for the future: More than a third of those participating don't think they have one in HME.

To the question "Which statement best describes your future plans," 8 percent said they planned to exit the HME business within the next year, while 6 percent said they would leave before Round 2 of DMEPOS competitive bidding is implemented in January 2013. Another 21 percent said they planned to exit the HME business if/when bid pricing is extended nationwide.

Others were more tentative: Three percent said they planned to stay in the HME business through this year, while another 8 percent gave themselves at least through 2011. Fifty-four percent of those taking part in the poll said they had no plans to leave the HME business.

The poll is anonymous and drew 140 participants.

"I know your poll results are disturbing, but they are not surprising," said Sean Schwinghammer, executive director of the Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of America. Schwinghamer has spent many hours talking to providers on the phone and in person, and said he sees the level of frustration and discouragement that is pervading the industry.

"We're in a situation where people are already overstretched, and they say, 'Why am I doing this?'" Schwinghammer said, noting that the enormous threat of DMEPOS competitive bidding, the burdensome audits that can hold up Medicare payments for months, the debilitating cuts in oxygen reimbursement and other issues have nearly sucked the lifeblood out of the industry.

Schwinghammer said a survey he did for AMEPA in November revealed much the same results as HomeCare's.

"I personally called all the providers in greater Miami-Dade County and in Dallas, and nearly 50 percent were planning to no longer be involved in Medicare. Just about 48 percent were either getting out of the Medicare business or were out of the business," he said. "My take on this is that your poll is reflective of what we found. People have just reached their limits."

The results are also in line with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' goal of not only reducing the cost of the Medicare DMEPOS expenditures but also cutting the number of providers. The agency has projected that after competitive bidding is fully implemented, only half will still be in the Medicare business.