Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/56191
■ Provider Mike Michot has a new gig: lobbyist. He says the HME industry deserves a voice with lawmakers. See story page 18. Advanced Home Care doubles retail sales ............ 17 LMI employs new marketing tactics ................. 17 Norco stays lean, grows large ...................... 17 HME News TV: Reduce costs, re-deploy cash . . . . . . . . . 19 Providers WWW.HMENEWS.COM / MARCH 2012 / HME NEWS 17 BRIEFS Air Products gives up on home care in Europe LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. – Air Products announced Jan. 9 that it's selling its homecare busi- ness in Belgium, Germany, France, Por- tugal and Spain to The Linde Group. The total purchase price for Air Products' con- tinental Europe homecare business: 590 million euros ($749.9 million). The sale in- cludes Air Products' oxygen therapy, sleep therapy and infusion therapy services. The patient base: 260,000. The revenue: about 210 million euros ($266.9 million) last year. Air Products is also assessing its options for its remaining homecare interests in the UK, Ireland, Argentina and Brazil. Global Medical makes third buy in three months PHOENIX – Global Medical Equipment of America (GMEA) announced in January that it has acquired Allen Medical Sup- ply in Opelousas, La. Allen Medical Sup- ply offers durable medical and respiratory equipment, power wheelchairs and orthot- ics. It's the third acquisition in as many months for GMEA. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Lincare branch has bomb scare; no injuries reported RED BLUFF, Calif. – That was no oxygen cyl- inder. Employees at a Lincare branch here got quite a scare in January when "a cy- lindrical device wrapped in duct tape with a fuse" was found in front of their store, according to local reports. No one was injured. The Shasta County Bomb Squad detonated the device at a rural location. AdvaCare named quality respiratory provider BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. – The American Associa- tion for Respiratory Care chose AdvaCare Home Services as a quality respiratory care provider, it announced in January. To qualify for the Quality Respiratory Care Recognitions (QRCR) program, AdvaCare met the following criteria: all respiratory therapists either legally recognized by the state as competent to provide respira- tory therapy services or hold the CRT or RRT credential; 24-hour availability; and accreditation by a nationally recognized organization. Short takes Hasco Medical has a new website with a new web address, www.hascomed.com, it announced in January. Hasco provides home health care products and services in the Southeastern United States…Cheek- towaga, N.Y.-based Respiratory Services of Western New York achieved accredita- tion from HQAA in November. In addition to respiratory services, the provider offers beds and wheelchairs…Yuma Regional First Health Medical Supply moved to a new location across from Yuma Regional Medical Center in January. The Yuma-Ariz.- based company offers oxygen equipment, CPAP, hospital beds and wheelchairs. OUTCOMES LMI markets to hospital execs BY T. FLAHERTY, Managing Editor MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. – Provider Lou Rocco knows that programs that can help control healthcare costs are a big part of the future. So the CEO of Landauer IT'S GOING TO BE a good year for Harrisburg, Pa.-based Dynamic Healthcare Services (DHS). From left: Terry Luft, CEO, DHS; Michael Holloway, executive vice president, GMH Ventures; and Mary Kay Fehl, vice president, operations, DHS. Ready to go big Dynamic Healthcare gets equity backing BY THERESA FLAHERTY, Managing Editor HARRISBURG, Pa. – After 30 years in the home medical equipment business, provider Terry Luft is ready for the big time. His company, Dynamic Healthcare Services (DHS), was acquired in January by Newtown Square, Pa.-based GMH Ven- tures, a family-owned private equity firm. The deal will allow DHS to build scale, something Luft says is crucial for survival. "Our goal is to put a very large footprint on the state of Penn- sylvania (and its border states)," said Luft, CEO. "There's plenty of organic growth on the draw- ing board, and there's also lots of quality companies out there (to acquire)." DHS is the parent company of Harrisburg-based Central Medi- cal Equipment, with locations in York and Lancaster; and Pitts- burgh-based ESMS Home Medi- cal, with a location in Butler. It has 70 employees and about $10 million in annual sales. The deal marks GMH Ven- tures' first foray into the HME market. Michael Holloway, DYNAMIC SEE PAGE 19 Metropolitan, Inc. (LMI) created a new marketing department—separate from its existing sales and market- ing team—to target managed care payers and, ultimately, accountable care organiza- tions (ACOs). "Going forward, it's going to account for a large part of our business," said Rocco. "We needed to have a champ really driving these programs." While managed care payers have already tried to control patient costs, hospitals have not. That's about to change. Beginning Oct. 1, hospitals with high rates of avoidable readmissions could see their Medicare payments reduced. That means providers can market themselves to different decision makers. Instead of dis- charge planners and case man- agers, LMI is targeting hospital CEOs and CFOs. "It's a different sell," said Rocco. "We want to impart what we can do for them." It's definitely a different audi- ence—and message, agrees Jack Evans. "With the discharge plan- ner or case manager, all you have to do is say you can provide the product and pro- vide great service and deliv- er it when you're supposed to," said Evans, president of Malibu, Calif.-based Global Media Marketing. "With an ACO, you have to be able to "It's a different sell." Lou Rocco, LMI document that you are work- ing with the patient and that you are keeping that patient healthier." LMI has worked to do just that. For the past year, the provider has had two disease management pilot programs in place. "Once we have the validated studies, from a third party, that will be our ticket into some of these other major managed care payers," said Rocco. HME Norco Goodbye 'ugly' aluminum D has lean down pat ESPITE THE constant juggling required by industry challenges, HME provider Ned Pontius manages to keep his eye on one ball in particular: profit- ability. The key to profit- ability, he says, is to be as effi- cient as possible. "In our particular business, where every year we get cuts from CMS, you either learn to NORCO SEE PAGE 18 Ned Pontius BY ELIZABETH DEPREY, Associate Editor GREENSBORO, N.C. – Until recently, the retail loca- tions for Advanced Home Care could only be described as "ugly closets," said retail specialist LilliAna Ward. "Walkers and commodes were just stacked up, with no rhyme or reason," said Ward. "Odds and ends were hanging on the walls and nothing had a price tag." Enter Ward, who set about turning the full- line HME provider's retail business —about 25 of its locations offer retail—into a serious money- maker. In the last year, retail business has doubled. How did they do it? Ward has redesigned the sales areas, which acted as little more than stor- age space, and changed up the merchandise at 14 of its retail locations, with plans to transform two more in the near future. "We created it so it's not just bent, ugly alumi- num," said Ward. "When you walk in, the store tells a story." Ward designed displays to be self-explanatory, like offering cleaning wipes and pillows with the ADVANCED HOME CARE groups products in their stores so customers can see all their options. CPAP machines. Advanced Home Care turned to retail to bolster the bottom line in light of declining reimburse- ments, said Tina Godfrey, senior director of cus- tomer support and retail services. "We thought, 'What else can we carry that would complement the services we provide?'" RETAIL SEE PAGE 19