MIAMI--Just weeks after scathing reports on the home medical equipment industry by National Public Radio and the New York Times, HME took another body blow last week, this time delivered in a two-part series that aired on NBC.

"I felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach," said Heather Allan, executive director of the Florida Association of Medical Equipment Services, after watching the segments that aired Monday, Dec. 10, and Tuesday, Dec. 11, on "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams."

Like the earlier reports, the NBC series by correspondent Mark Potter focused on fraudulent Medicare billing in HME, particularly in South Florida. After both previous stories, industry stakeholders had pinned their hopes for a fair report on NBC. But the TV series made only swift mention of legitimate providers and did not include any of the three hours of discussion Potter had with FAMES President Raul Lopez, director of operations for Bayshore Dura Medical in Miami Lakes.

"I was deeply, deeply disappointed," Allan said, noting that her overall impression from the NBC piece was that "every single person in this industry is a crook."

She added: "I don't know that the story was ever intended to be an unbiased and balanced look. I didn't get the impression that it was after reviewing both segments."

In a letter to Williams, Elizabeth M. Moran, executive director of the Medical Equipment Suppliers Association, which is based in Casselberry, Fla., and covers Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas, objected to the piece, saying it was "sensationalistic and focused only on the negative."

"To paint all DME providers with the same brush as those with false store fronts, or crooked pharmacies, or dishonest doctors, did an entire industry a grave injustice," she wrote. Moran asked for an apology--or even better, she said--"an objective look at the industry and its good works."

While the NBC segments themselves did not contain the flip side of fraudulent DME, visitors to the NBC Web site could dig around and find more material. For example, Lopez could be seen in a brief video, and Potter, in a piece written for the site, does distinguish between legitimate HME companies and crooks.

"Unlike real DME companies, which have showrooms, warehouses, public offices, trained staff and professional record-keeping, the fraudulent companies are usually shell companies with shadowy business practices, hidden owners and tiny, locked offices which are only there to create the illusion of legitimacy," he wrote. "They rarely have any medical products for actual sale or delivery."

While the NBC series disappointed many in the industry, it and the other pieces may not be as damaging as some had feared, said John Gallagher, vice president of government relations for Waterloo, Iowa-based VGM. Even though they come at a critical time--just as Congress is considering additional cuts to oxygen and power wheelchair reimbursement--they might not carry much weight.

"The reports don't help," Gallagher acknowledged. "But the timing is such that most members of Congress see right through it."