MedTrade Conference Orientation:
Well I made it to the orientation session at the beginning of the "Spring MedTrade" conference, 2016. Outside of the general new attendee briefing (where to go, when to be there, and what to expect from the conference sessions), there was a lively discussion around the Medicaid bid process.
For those of you that aren't familiar with this process, a number of years ago, there were many abuses of the Medicare "reimbursement" process. It was riddled with outright fraud, and many (that were considered less that reputable) marketers taking advantage of the elderly and disabled, and the Medicare system.
In response, the Federal government overhauled the healthcare system, and the Medicare reimbursement process. Providers were to "bid" for contracts to supply care products to Medicare recipients. It greatly reduced the instances of fraud, but ushered in a new era of making it difficult for many smaller operators survive. One person said that he spent the last 30 years building a trusted business providing quality home care products to those on Medicare, only to start losing bid after bid, in what appeared unfair competition. He was very forthcoming, that this new system has put him on the verge of financial collapse.
At the heart of the discussion was the difficulties dealing with the "Coordinated Care Organizations" (CCO) created to curb some of these abuses, and increase the efficiency of delivering care and care products. Unfortunately, it also created other questionable practices for delivering care products, reimbursed by Medicare.
WWW.Caregivergear.com does not take Medicare reimbursement currently, so "yours truly" is not as familiar with the process as parts of the industry that concentrated solely on providing care products to Medicare patients. But this is one of the reason www.caregivergear.com is hear at the MedTrade conference. We hope to, one day, be able to provide quality home care products to those on Medicare.
Watch for future updates of the 2016 Spring MedTrade conference here in Las Vegas.
