The Scooter Store Keeps Taking The Hits

A few days ago we found out that Invacare had dropped The Scooter Store after learning about the letter that had been circulating around congress to discourage the rehab carve-out. The week hasn't gotten any better for The Scooter Store.

• Jerry Keiderling, president of US Rehab sent a letter to AAHomecare encouraging the expulsion of The Scooter Store from the Rehab and Assistive Technology Council (RATC), citing the need to keep a unified industry voice when dealing with congress.

These two are not aimed specifically at The Scooter Store by name, but the timing is hard to ignore:

• Pride Mobility has stiffened up and re-published their provider standards, putting an emphasis on mandatory annual training, ATS/ATP employed at each location, and servicing ALL products sold. Pride promises to review their suppliers annually for compliance.
• CMS published a new set of supplier standards raising the number from 21 to 31. CMS feels that competitive bidding will weed a lot of fraudulent providers out of the system, but the increased supplier standards will discourage the few that may slip through.

Invacare has still not made a statement on InvacarePro but our local rep has been making the rounds sharing the story and the stand that Invacare has taken. Sunrise Medical is the only other provider listed on The Scooter Store's website that has not made a comment, even subtly, in response to the carve-out letter.

So is everybody ganging up on The Scooter Store, or is The Scooter Store trying to take advantage of a business opportunity that has presented itself? The letter from The Scooter Store and the statements from the CEO show two different faces of the company, one that looks out for the industry interests and one that looks out for the company interests. Who is looking out for the clients?

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

HMENews got the scoop on the break-up between Invacare and The Scooter Store. Last week Invacare announced that they will no longer supply products to The Scooter Store stating they are, “against everything the industry stands for.”

HMENews reports that:

After 17 years of focusing on consumer/geriatric mobility and scooters, the Scooter Store began tiptoeing into the complex rehab market late last year. Then, in December, the company circulated a letter to a “handful of congressional offices” making its case that complex rehab should not be carved out of competitive bidding.

Obviously, if complex rehab is not carved out, the sheer geographic reach of The Scooter Store will make them the biggest player at the competitive bidding party.

The Scooter Store did some backpedaling about the letter and tried to toe the industry line, but revealed it's true intentions when the CEO, Doug Harrison stated, "the Scooter Store opposes it (competitive bidding); but if it must go forward, both geriatric mobility and custom rehab should be carved out; and one big bid would be more efficient for CMS than 80 smaller bids." Confused yet? It sounds like they are apologizing with their fingers crossed behind their backs.

The rest of the article dissolves into the classic he said, she said bickering that you have to listen to when your best friends break up in high school. The Scooter Store points out that Invacare will be losing a large chunk of income. Invacare thumbs it's nose at the former bed partner preferring to hang out with the whole industry instead of trying a monogamous relationship. Like most break ups, each party is quietly hurting inside but everybody on the outside is secretly happy the relationship is over.

Obviously The Scooter Store is not out of business. They no longer have any Invacare images on their website, but they are still pushing Pride Mobility and Sunrise Medical. Invacare, is banking on an increased sense of loyalty from independent rehab providers despite the fact that they have not published their story on their website. I guess they are hoping that HMENews and other industry news sources will tell their story for them.

There still isn't a clear cut winner here. The Scooter Store, like any other business will conduct business in a manner that is most beneficial for them. Competitive Bidding is not good for the industry as a whole but may be good for a small number of companies and CMS. Business owners and customers both lose when competition is artificially eliminated by the government. I don't know if Invacare struck a positive blow against Competitive Bidding or not, but they have put their money where their mouth is.

Invacare is hoping to gain some ground in the industry by showing loyalty to the industry as a whole rather than one large customer. Will Invacare's recent actions influence your product purchasing?

Medical Device Recalls and You

Keep up to date on your product recalls by checking out the government's website:

FDA Medical Device Recalls Website

There is also a good tutorial on what a recall is, how they work, and what the different levels of recall are.

The main list traces Class I recalls back to 11/2000. It looks like the only recent rehab related recall is for the Quickie Rhythm, Groove, and Z-Bop from 4/2007. There is a secondary search engine to track Class II and Class III recalls as well.

Remember that the FDA requires that you track your equipment by serial and lot number from the time you receive it from the manufacturer, to the end user's home, and through the useful lifetime of the equipment. Keeping track of recalls keeps your clients and your business safer. How do you track your equipment?

DME vs. Furniture Industry?

There's an interesting discussion taking place in the MedGroup discussion forums about lift chairs. While the majority of the discussion revolves around quality issues of various manufacturers, Eric McNulty of Hub's Home Oxygen brings out a different point:

"... Just an FYI, I was walking through a local furniture store yesterday and saw they were a dealer for Golden Technology, selling chairs really cheap. As much as I wanted to leave the whole Pride issue because of quality, we will not support a company (Golden) that competes with us by using furniture companies. I told my Golden rep that and she basically hung up on me. They should support Homecare not the furniture industry."

In a time of reduced reimbursements, when many DME and Rehab companies are branching out looking for revenue wherever they can, is it wrong for Golden Technology to sell their products through retail outlets? DME companies have an advantage over most furniture outlets that will not bill Medicare for partial reimbursements.

Weigh in and leave your comments.

Pride Mobility Announces New Website for IPB's

http://www.prideipbs.com/

Pride Mobility announced a new website today that gives simple access to their illustrated parts breakdowns. The IPB's used to be housed at the Pride Service website, but were a little less than intuitive to find and access their. The new location requires the same password that is used to access the Provider or Service sites. The IPB's are in .pdf format, so Adobe Reader or Foxit will be needed to view the pages.

Because the IPB's use .pdf format, it may will take some time to download each book and find the specific part you are looking for. Get acquainted with the ctrl-f keyboard shortcut to speed up the find process. Sometimes I like to use the IPB and race tech support for the part number while I wait on hold. I find the IPB's very helpful when I am verifying a part number from tech support. Sometimes I don't think we speak the same language when I describe the parts I'm looking for.

The IPB's require that you are well acquainted with Pride Mobility's nomenclature when you are searching for a part name. I am still a fan of the Invacare parts catalog that allows you to drill down to your specific part with a little more intuitive interface, but I am glad that the Pride information is more readily available on the web.

Do you plan on downloading the IPB's or rely on live tech support?

Silver Star Multi-Purpose Battery Pack

Pride Mobility announced an update to the popular Silver Star vehicle lift line on the Pride Provider website:

"The new multi-purpose battery pack from Pride Silver Star lets your clients charge their power chair or scooter on the go. No complicated wiring is required, just plug into the vehicle's power source and it’s ready to charge. It's the most convenient way available to keep your mobility device ready to roll."

This is an innovative product that will allow users to charge their battery powered mobility vehicle while on the go in their gas powered mobility vehicle. I have not seen the new battery itself yet but I assume that it will work with any power chair or scooter that uses a similar charging plug as the standard Pride charging plugs. Permobil and Invacare users may be out of luck unless their is an adapter available.

The battery pack is an upcharge on the lift system, but the price is worth it for the ease of installation alone. I'll make an update and review on the battery pack when I get my hands on one. My Pride rep promises me that the new battery packs are in stock and ready for order.

Will this new feature help you clinch the next vehicle lift sale or help an active customer solve their mobile charging dilemmas?

MabisDMI Corporate Website Launch

A MESSAGE FROM MABIS / DMI

www.mabisdmi.com Corporate Website Launch

Mabis / DMI has been working hard behind the scenes preparing a website to support www.mabisdmi.com and www.duro-med.com. At long last, we have a working website under our full company, www.mabisdmi.com as well as both company brands, www.mabis.net and www.duro-med.com.

If a user goes to www.mabisdmi.com, they will be directed to a portal page, where they can click through to either the mabis.net or the duro-med.com sites.

Mabis / DMI has been working hard behind the scenes preparing a website to support www.mabisdmi.com and www.duro-med.com. At long last, we have a working website under our full company, www.mabisdmi.com as well as both company brands, www.mabis.net and www.duro-med.com. If a user goes to www.mabisdmi.com, they will be directed to a portal page, where they can click through to either the mabis.net or the duro-med.com sites.

The MABIS site has been live for some time and is unchanged for now. We will be doing some updates, and are continuing to build towards a major overhaul. The DMI site is brand new. Our goal is to continue to build the website family to be user friendly, institute secure online ordering and enhance our product information with user instructions, assembly guides etc. As you click around, you will see several features: all clicks on MABIS specific products will link the user back to the MABIS website; the Request a Catalog button links the user back to the standard form used on the MABIS site; much of the contact information and about the company information mirrors the catalog.

We are very excited about this soft-launch. We have gotten a great deal of positive feedback already and are looking forward to the next step.