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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Mobility Consumers will be front and center at CRT conference . . 1 Numotion seeks to speed up turnaround times . . . . . . . . 15 Rehab Medical promotes Jarrad Rankin . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Steve Gleason inspires Numotion employees . . . . . . . . . 16 ■ The upcoming CRT conference will focus on issues related to accessories and a separate benefit for complex rehab. See story below. Briefs NSM gets moving NASHVILLE, Tenn. – National Seating & Mobility has unveiled a new brand identity designed to reflect the national provider's legacy, mission and future. The identity includes a new logo, tagline, mission and vision state- ments, core values and a suite of marketing materials. "NSM has been on a trajectory of growth and evolution over the last several years and it is important to ensure that our branding genuinely reflects who we are and where we are going as a company," said Bill Mixon, NSM CEO. "This branding initiative is a powerful way for us to convey to the marketplace our brand story and tap into the passion that drives us to serve our clients with excellence." The process included third- party research involving almost 2,000 referral sources, clients, payers, employees and oth- er stakeholders. The new logo represents a wheelchair in motion, with the lowercase "n" representing the national scope of the NSM's work. The bottom half of the logo reflects a person with uplifted arms meant to reinforce the company's client-centered commitment. The new tagline, "Let's Get Moving," cap- tures NSM's mission to serve clients by pro- viding independence and self-reliance. The name for NSM's new core values, HEARTS, stands for honor, excellence, accountability, respect, teamwork and service. More notes from NSM: Contracts with payer, extends partnership NASHVILLE, Tenn. – National Seating & Mobility is now in-network with Geisinger Health Plan in Pennsylvania, the provider announced Jan. 23. "Our experienced assistive technology professionals and branch teams in Pennsyl- vania look forward to bringing customized re- hab solutions to plan members with mobility challenges," said Bill Mixon, NSM CEO, in a press release. NSM currently has branches in Harrisburg, Reading and Allentown, Pa. Geis- inger serves 557,000 members in the state… NSM has extended its partnership with WHILL Inc. Per the partmership, NSM will serve as the national complex rehab distribu- tor of the new Model Ci power mobility de- vice. WHILL's Model Ci has two motors, front omni-wheels, easy-to-use controllers and the ability to disassemble into three parts. NSM and WHILL previously announced an exclu- sive nationwide complex rehab agreement for the Model M power wheelchair. NRRTS to present awards LUBBOCK, Texas – NRRTS will present four awards at the upcoming National CRT Leadership & Advocacy Conference, April 25-26 in Washington, D.C. NCART ac- cepted accepted nominations up until Feb. 28 for the Leadership Award, Distin- guished Service Award, Consumer Advo- cate Award and Simon Margolis Award. "The NRRTS board of directors wish to recognize certain individuals and groups who have contributed to the advancement of CRT through leadership, advocacy or distinguished service," NRRTS stated. www.h M e N ew S . C o M / M a RC h 2018 / h M e N ew S 15 Stakeholders line up strategy Numotion tightens timeline Beautification As part of Numotion's annual meeting in Houston in January, 650 company volunteers put in more than 3,000 man hours in three hours to beautify Hilliard Elementary School on the city's East Side. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, the school is being completely remodeled, while its 600 students are being bused to an alternative loca- tion. Volunteers planted trees, created a community garden, built picnic tables and painted playground art. "This is always the highlight of the year for me," said CEO Mike Swinford, "to see our team roll up their sleeves and serve." Rehab Medical thrives as regional 'This is the year we're going to change the game, in terms of turnaround' By Liz Beau L ieu, e ditor WASHINGTON – NCART and NRRTS have three, ideally two, legislative asks for their National CRT Lead- ership & Advocacy Conference, April 25-26. Fi N i S h T he job The first, and there's a possibil- ity that this will be taken care of before the event takes place: stop competitive bidding-related pric- ing for accessories for complex manual wheelchairs. Stakehold- ers plan to use the Capitol Hill visits on April 26 to push H.R. 3730, which had 84 co-sponsors at press time, possibly as part of larger legislation. "We've gotten almost 30 more co-sponsors in 30 days and we've gotten some encouraging comments about that," said Don Clayback, executive director of NCART, in mid-January. "Con- gress has bills to pass, so there are opportunities." b a C k S ea T N o M o R e? If the more immediate accessory issue is taken care of before the event, efforts to create a sepa- rate benefit for complex rehab, a long-standing goal, will take center stage. Stakeholders plan to use the visits to increase support for H.R. 750, which had 98 co- sponsors at press time. Clayback also says a companion bill in the Senate should be introduced in time for the event. "The separate benefit had to take a back seat, but now that we have the majority of the accessory By Liz Beau L ieu, e ditor HOUSTON – A big goal that came out of Numotion's annual employee meeting in January: "drastically reduce the cycle time to process orders and pro- vide chairs," says CEO Mike Swinford. "This is the year we're going to change the game, in terms of turnaround times," he said. "That's not to say every order is going to happen in record speed, but I think, on average, we can move the needle." The meeting, which had the theme "lead," drew more than 400 ATPs to Houston, 70 of them added to the company By Liz Beau L ieu, e ditor T HE E x PO at Numotion's annual meeting included manufacturers of medi- cal supplies for the first time. The presence of Cure Medical and Hollister is a reflection of Numotion's growing business. "Our medical supplies busi- ness is exploding," said Mike Swinford, CEO of Numotion. Numotion has been grow- ing its medical supplies busi- ness for several years and has built a team of account managers specifically for that product category nationwide. The Brentwood, Tenn.-based company runs the business as a separate unit in Houston. R e f e r r a l s o u rc e s a n d By Liz Beau L ieu, e ditor INDIANAPOLIS – Jarrad Rankin has done such a good job building up Rehab Medical's book of complex rehab business that he was given a larger managerial role at the company in January. Rankin, formerly director of rehab, has been promoted to director of operations, a posi- tion where he'll oversee service, purchasing and insurance review company-wide. "We were a standard DME company that added complex rehab in 2011 and now it's pretty much 75% of our business," said Rankin, who started working at Rehab Medical in 2005 as a sales assistant and worked his way up. Rehab Medical does business in more than a dozen metro mar- kets in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Georgia. In a highly competitive com- plex rehab market dominated by two national players, Rankin is tight lipped about the secrets to Rehab Medical's success. "We've survived with some really great leadership," he said of the company's president and CEO. "They've done a great job adapting to the changing envi- ronment and changing reim- bursement, and changing our model. One of the biggest things that has helped us thrive is our model and how it's different." When asked how, Rankin said, "It's unique." One clue: In 2017, Rehab Medical acquired Crow Creek national crt conference roster just last year. The timeframe for turning around orders has a "huge range," Swinford says—anywhere from two weeks for a simpler order up to four months for a more complex order that involves, among other things, mul- tiple payers. So it won't be easy. "It's going to take hard work and collaboration with a lot of partners, including external parties, like referrals and payers," he said, "and clients, in many cases, who will need to advocate for themselves." Swinford says his team cringes when he talks about turnaround times in minutes and hours—versus days and weeks—but their efforts will get a nice boost this year from a new, "more contemporary" operating system. "It's the backbone of our business," he said. "It's how we manage everything from the ordering process to claims man- agement with payers. It's what the ATPs use when they start a new evaluation. We've gone through major investments to bring together 49 different com- panies into one company and one culture." hme Supplies business 'explodes' Mike Swinford N U m O T I O N ' S S u p p l I E S S E E p A g E 1 6 C r T C O N f E r E N C E S E E p A g E 1 6 r E H A B M E d I C A l S E E p A g E 1 6