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
Issue link: https://hme.epubxp.com/i/864813
Vendors Briefs Medforce, DME Data Solutions fill in gaps SUFFERN, N.Y., and SAN DIEGO – Medforce Tech- nologies and DME Data Solutions have formed a strategic partnership to deliver pro- viders an end-to-end solution for business management that improves efficiency, in- creases productivity and boosts profitability, the two companies say. Medforce is a pro- vider of process and document management software; DME Data Solutions is a provider of productivity software. Together, the two companies offer more than a dozen software modules focused on minimizing manual ef- forts, improving automation and freeing up resources to focus on strategic activities, ac- cording to a press release. Mediware taps Miller CEO LENEXA, Kan. – Bill Miller has been name CEO of Mediware Information Systems. He suc- ceeds Kelly Mann, who has served as CEO since 2007. Miller has more than 20 years of healthcare and technology experience, most recently as CEO of OptumInsight at Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. Prior to OptumInsight, Miller served as vice president of technologies at Cerner Corporation. Invacare to relocate wheelchair production ELYRIA, Ohio – Invacare said it plans to shift production of its Invacare Rea manual wheel- chairs from its facility in Dïo, Sweden, to its wheelchair manufacturing facility in Fond- ettes, France. The move will allow the com- pany to better optimize its wheelchair manu- facturing facility in Fondettes, while enabling its Dïo facility to focus on its production of beds for the Nordic market, along with being the distribution center for lifestyle products, the company said in a press release. The move is expected to be completed in Janu- ary 2018. Philips shifts workers MURRYSVILLE, Pa. – Royal Philips has relo- cated more than 100 employees to a new 14,000-square-foot space in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood, where they are clos- er to universities, medical centers, research partners and innovation leaders, the com- pany announced in a press release. In the past two years, Philips has established new professional and distribution facilities in Mur- rysville and New Kensington, and completed construction of a distribution and service fa- cility in Mount Pleasant. Short takes Aetrex Worldwide has re-launched Foot. com. The website, originally launched in 2009, now highlights "the intrinsic benefits of foot scanning"...TheraSkin will now be available in all four sizes to veterans through 110 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers and 800 Community Based Outpatient Centers... Circadiance has joined VGM's network of vendors, increasing the company's access to more than 5,000 independent HME provid- ers. Circadiance's brands include the Sleep- Weaver soft cloth CPAP mask. Inogen sees POCs on the upswing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 ResMed ready to 'unleash' sales force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 MK Battery powers power soccer event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Convatec adds distribution business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 ■ Invacare is ready to earn back business from providers, says CEO Matt Monaghan. See story this page. www.h ME n E w S . COM / jun E 2017 / h ME n E w S 27 IVC ready to earn back business Conversion to POCs now has 'substance,' Inogen CEO says RESMED SETS HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR FUTURE MASK SALES earnings season By Liz Beau L ieu, e ditor ELYRIA, Ohio – Invacare looks for ward to re-introducing p ro v i d e r s t o a " d i ff e re n t company" now that it has the green light to resume full operations at its corpo- rate headquarters and Taylor Street facilities. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration notified Inva- care in a letter dated July 24 that the company has satisfied By Liz Beau L ieu, e ditor GOLETA, Calif. – Company offi- cials at Inogen say they had record financial results for the second quarter and there are a number of signs that point to an even better second half of the year. Chief among them: Sus- tained increases in Inogen's domestic business-to-busi- ness channel, growing proof that providers are moving to portable oxygen concentra- tors and non-delivery busi- ness models. "We said in the past that we needed a little bit more time By Liz Beau L ieu, e ditor SAN DIEGO – ResMed expects to see a nice bump in mask sales in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2018, now that it has manufacturing "suffi- ciently ramped up" for two new masks, the N20 and F20, says CEO Mick Farrell. The masks and accesso- ries category in the Americas grew only 4% in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017, compared to 8% for devices. "As we noted in our call 90 days ago, we expected to have mask supply constraints throughout the first half of the (fourth) quarter and (we expected to have) to get our manufacturing sufficiently ramped up so that we could be ahead of demand by June," Farrell said during a confer- ence call on Aug. 1 to discuss ResMed's latest earnings. "We did just that. However, we clearly missed out on some By Jeff Rowe, Contributing w riter W H E N 1 0 n a t i o n a l teams met in Kis- simee, Fla., in July to compete for top honors in the Federation Internationale De Powerchair Football Asso- ciation (FIPFA) World Cup, all of the wheelchairs were powered with batteries from MK Battery, but there was no doubting which team the company was rooting for: Team USA. Team USA ended up tak- ing second place in the event, in a final game that w e n t d o w n t o t h e w i re before France broke away in the final minutes. "I can only imagine how the parents of a disabled athlete must feel watching their child representing their nation in an international competition," said Wayne Merdinger, executive vice president and general man- ager of MK Battery. Anaheim, Calif.-based MK Battery has been the primary sponsor and "Official Battery" of the United States Power Soccer Association (USPSA) and Team USA since 2013. MK Battery initially got involved in the sport by acci- dent, Merdinger says. "Somebody sent me a link to a Power Soccer event," he recounted. "I had never heard of the sport and was imme- diately enamored. I con- tacted the president of the USPSA and the marriage was born. As one of the leading suppliers of batteries used in power mobility equipment, especially with our strong focus in the CRT arena, there couldn't have been a more perfect fit for us." M K B a t t e r y h a s s i n c e become involved with the in the pickle barrel to really see if there's a conversion pro- cess or not," said CEO Scott Wilkinson during a confer- e n c e c a l l w i t h a n a - lysts. "Now we're about a year, a year and a half d o w n t h e ro a d f ro m when I made those initial statements and clearly the market is moving that way. I would caution it's still going to take seven to 10 years for Limitations on making and selling products comes to end after nearly five years requirements under a con- sent decree that has limited its ability to make and sell products from the facilities for nearly five years, since December 2012. "When I came on board in 2015, I came with a clean slate, and we didn't waste that opportunity at all," said Mat- thew Monaghan, chairman, president and CEO. "We've looked at everything we could change." For much of that time, Invacare made improvements to its quality system as part of lifting the consent decree in lockstep with a broader effort to transform the com- pany into a more specialized, clinically focused company. T h e r e s u l t s o f t h o s e efforts include a more uni- fied approach to its product portfolio and sales structure, something that was sorely Powered by MK A crowd A ssembles to hear CEO Matt Monaghan speak . S . Wilkinson wA yne m erdinger of m K bA ttery presents the World Cup to Bryan Weiss, as teammate Mohamed Ghelami looks on . I N VA C A R E s e e pa g e 2 8 I N O G E N s e e pa g e 2 8 R E S M E D s e e pa g e 2 8 M K b at t e r y s e e pa g e 2 8 t e A m U s A's Riley Johnson and Jordan Dickey in action