As at other recent industry gatherings, competitive bidding and accreditation proved to be the top-of-mind issues at The VGM Group's Heartland Conference,
Sunday, July 1, 2007

As at other recent industry gatherings, competitive bidding and accreditation proved to be the top-of-mind issues at The VGM Group's Heartland Conference, held June 11-14 in Waterloo, Iowa.

On getting involved

“Once we heard of the requirement that HME providers be accredited, we immediately went through the process as we are in Houston and thought it would be in the first round of competitive bidding. Since we now know we are in the second round, we have plenty of time, but we are making changes now such as streamlining our organization and preparing to bid financially.

Also, for the first time, we are getting involved politically, approaching congressmen and senators in our district and visiting representatives in Washington with groups like VGM and AAHomecare. In the past, we left it up to everyone else, but now you can't do that — you have to be proactive. One of the biggest changes we have made is to put our time, resources and finances towards being politically active.”
— Jason Hall, Texas Home Medical, Conroe, Texas

On Tanner-Hobson

“Attendance at the Heartland conference shows the enthusiasm that remains in this business. By coming together, we can do a lot to preserve the financial success of the independent provider, starting with getting the Tanner-Hobson bill passed. We need to get providers to go into their home states and get their congressmen and senators signed onto this bill. [The ‘any willing provider’ provision] means that all companies can stay in the game, and Congress has to reauthorize any further movement toward competitive bidding.”
— Mal Mixon, chairman and CEO, Invacare Corp., Elyria, Ohio

On new opportunities

“A lot of people seem to think mandatory accreditation is not going to happen, that there is going to be some kind of stay of execution on it and on competitive bidding. We are not looking at it that way at all. Currently, we have a branch in Dallas, which is one of the first [competitive bidding areas]. We are also looking at bidding in Kansas City and some other markets. People are making a mistake if they do not bid; it is not going to go away. We are very optimistic. Any time there is change, to me, there is opportunity.”
— Scott Higley, COO, Adorno Rogers Technology, Brentwood, Tenn.

On moving away from Medicare

“After listening to speakers at Heartland last year say you have to put out and display products to sell products, such as lift chairs, we have done that and have increased our gross sales by 50 percent.”
— Wilson Rogers, business development manager, Rogers Home Medical, Victoria, Texas