HME News is the monthly business newspaper for home medical equipment providers. This controlled circulation publication reaches 17,100 home medical equipment services providers, including traditional HME dealers & suppliers, hospital- and pharmacy-o
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Providers see opportunity in Cuba 1 Independently Yours provides fresh blood 12 SBA honors man in van 12 QIC demo sets different tone 13 12 hme news / june 2016 / www.hmenews.com ■ ■ Provider Jonathan Temple found success after modeling his showroom after Verizon mobile stores. See story this page. Briefs Aerofow lands 645 bid contracts, seeks subcontractors ASHVILLE, N.C. – Aerofow Healthcare has re- ceived 645 contract offers for 108 competi- tive bidding areas as part of the Round 2 re-compete, the provider has announced. Aerofow, which already works with more than 100 subcontractors in 39 states as part of previous rounds of the program, plans to add more subcontractors for the Round 2 re-compete. Aerofow has a dedi- cated team that works solely with subcon- tractors. For the Round 2 re-compete, it received contract offers for enteral, general HME, nebulizers, negative pressure wound therapy pumps, respiratory equipment, standard mobility and transcutaneous elec- trical nerve stimulation. Alliance continues Arizona expansion PRESCOTT, Ariz. – Alliance Homecare has acquired Bradshaw Home Medical, also based in Prescott. Valley Healthcare Group, parent to Alliance Homecare, now operates 10 DME locations in Arizona and Nebraska, and 10 accredited sleep centers. "We now service patients from the southern border of Arizona to Prescott and Prescott Valley, and we are expanding to other areas in Arizona soon, covering 75% of the state's population from the southern border up to northern Arizona," said Ron Evans, owner. The two companies will remain indepen- dently owned and operated. Evans, who launched Valley Respiratory Services in 2006 with his wife, has grown his business through acquisitions like Heartland Health Therapy in 2014, RTA Homecare in 2013 and Alliance in 2012. southern home medical exec resigns amid merger GREER, S.C. – Jeffrey Sarvis has resigned from his posts as president and CEO and director of the board of Southern Home Medical. Miguel Dotres will step up as in- terim president and CEO and director. He will lead the company through this transi- tional phase. Southern Home Medical did not give details on said merger. In March, the company, which owns and operates ApneaRx, reported $1.14 million in rev- enues and $60,983 in net income for 2015. "SOHM fnished the year poised and fnan- cially ready to pursue sale, merger and/or acquisition opportunities and was able to quickly attract interest," it stated in a press release. short takes: enos, Lighthouse Enos Home Medical has acquired the hos- pice division of Cape Medical Supply. The deal makes the New Bedford, Mass.-based provid- er the largest hospice supplier in southeastern Massachusetts. The Sandwich, Mass.-based Cape Medical Supply is focusing on its sleep business… Lighthouse Medical Equip- ment held a grand opening celebration on May 5 at its Bristol, Conn., location. Providers By T. FlaherTy, Managing editor SALT LAKE CITY – When HME provider Jay Broadbent start- ed out in 1997, he was just one man with a van. Fast forward 19 years and the founder and CEO of Alpine Home Medical Equip- ment has been named by the U.S. Small Business Adminis- tration as the Small Business Person of the Year for Utah. "I look at this as an Alpine Home Medical award rather than a Jay Broadbent award," said Broadbent. "I really look at it as our company and all of the really good people that work hard day in and day out earning the award." Broadbent was nominated for the award by his local bank. The criteria for the award include staying power, growing employee numbers, increasing sales, and innova- tion in products or services offered. Today, Alpine Home Medi- cal has nearly 200 employees and eight locations that cover the entire state of Utah, and a By Theresa FlaherTy, Managing editor BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – When provider Jonathan Temple lost 45% of his business after not winning contracts in the original Round 2 of competitive bidding, he knew it was time to regroup. "We got proactive and put a plan in place," said the owner of OxyMed, which also has a location in Rainsville that still accepts tradi- tional Medicare. "We researched how many people are buying CPAP supplies off the Inter- net and focused in on retail." Since opening in 2010, OxyMed, which focuses on sleep and respiratory, has dou- bled its size and added a second location in Rainsville. Using Verizon mobile phone stores as a model, OxyMed created a retail showroom to showcase CPAP machines, masks and sup- plies, and oxygen equipment. Products are grouped by manufacturer and allow patients to "feel, touch and try on" what they could OxyMed fnds winning formula SBA honors Alpine founder Go green In April, Jamestown, Tenn.- based Buckeye Home Medical celebrated National Donate Life Month by selling "Going Green" shirts to support Robert Hamby, warehouse supervisor, and his family. The color green repre- sents kidney disease awareness. So far, the provider has raised $2,000. By John andrews, Contributing editor PARKER, Colo. – Before Bill and Doreen Leahy sold their mechan- ical contracting frm and moved from New York to the Rocky Mountain State two years ago, the entrepreneurial-minded cou- ple searched for a new business they could embrace and nurture. For them, opening an HME retail store ft the bill perfectly. "We saw it as an opportuni- ty to inject fresh blood into the industry," Bill Leahy said about opening Independently Yours in 2015. "We have found it to be a lot less stressful than our previ- ous company, which we operated for 27 years. Customer service is our thing and we can make a big difference here." Provider 'appeals' with products 'We have found it to be a lot less stressful than our previous company' The Leahys settled on the HME industry because they have a personal connection to it from relatives who have needed care. That is why their business focus is on helping to keep seniors indepen- dent in their homes with a product mix that includes mobility, bath safety, aids to daily liv- ing items, lift chairs, stair lifts and ramps. The 2,500-square- f o o t s t o re h a s a n 1 , 8 0 0 - s q u a r e - f o o t showroom and the interior fea- tures a "comfortable" shopping ambience patterned after mer- chandising giant Nordstrom's. The town of Parker is an upscale community and that demo- graphic is important in making the HME retail concept work, Leahy said. "We are designed to appeal to people who need our prod- ucts and can afford to pay out- of-pocket for them," he said. "We don't carry cheap, inferior prod- ucts. We carry the best- in-class for all catego- ries. We only work with manufacturers who firmly stand behind their products." To boost their online presence, the Lea- hys implemented an e-commerce feature for their website. But as Bill Leahy explains, the addition had more to do with improved func- tionality than with driving cyber sales. "We never meant to build a big e-commerce presence—we just want to communicate what we have in the store," he said. only see on the Internet, says Temple. "From day one, it worked," he said. "Peo- ple say, 'I never knew there were this many masks,'" or they were sent to another com- pany and not given any choice and if the mask didn't work, they were out of luck." Of course, there's always going to be peo- ple who visit the showroom and order off the Internet, anyway, says Temple. He just strives to offer customer-friendly service and poli- cies, like a mask assurance ft guarantee that allows customers to swap their frst mask within 15 days if it doesn't work for them. "We had heard lots of complaints that peo- ple had masks they'd paid cash for online and there was no return policy," said Temple. Another service: CPAP repair. OxyMed is a certifed repair center. As part of its efforts to diversify away from Medicare, the provider has also increased the number of commercial insurances it accepts, says Temple. But, like Medicare, HMOs and other payers are cutting reimbursement, requiring the provider to take a hard look at how it operates. "Today, we are better, we are more orga- nized, leaner, meaner and more effcient," said Temple. "We use the latest technology and anything we can to fnd to do things better without losing sight of the most important thing we have: relationships." hme Oxymed's shOwrOOm is arranged by manufacturer and is designed to let custom- ers "touch, feel and try on" the equipment FRESH BLOOD B R O A d B E N T S e e N e x T pA G e "We are designed to appeal to people who need our products and can afford to pay out-of- pocket for them." N E w B u S I N e S S S e e N e x T pA G e