LAGO VISTA, Texas--Founding board member and past president Simon Margolis has been named executive director of NRRTS, the National Registry of Rehabilitation Technology Suppliers. He assumed his new duties last week.

As the organization moves forward, Margolis said, particularly as the industry deals with new mobility policies, codes and pricing, "the most important thing is to maintain the high level of expertise and performance and compassion that NRRTS registrants have for their clients, regardless of how much money we're getting paid.

"That's the key issue if we're going to continue to serve our clients as we have because people don't deserve second-class care."

Margolis added that it will be up to individual service-deliverers to dialog with their companies about maintaining service levels. "This is not the place to cut," he said. "We have to use our smarts and figure out ways to continue to provide service yet keep costs down."

As far as a carve-out of complex rehab from competitive bidding, Margolis said, "we're going to have to see what kind of support we can get from the new Democratic majority." Last year's Congress adjourned without any action on a bill that would have excluded the area from the Medicare bidding program.

However, he added, "this is still a critical issue, and it's equally important for the states to see the federal government set a precedent for carving out rehab so they treat it differently as well."

With more than a 30-year career in complex rehab, Margolis most recently spent seven years as vice president of clinical and professional development for National Seating & Mobility, Nashville, Tenn. He is a founding member of NCART, the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology, and a past president of RESNA, the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America.

Founded in 1992, NRRTS has more than 800 registrants. The credential of Certified Rehabilitation Technology Supplier (CRTS) can be carried only by NRRTS registrants who have passed the Assistive Technology Supplier (ATS) exam administered by RESNA.