Is there another Shut down coming??

Discussion in 'Pacific Pulmonary Services' started by DAMN, Jan 30, 2016 at 1:41 AM.

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  1. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Educate me, AFTER you have charged the patient for 60 months and more than recouped the initial expense of the concentrator does the 60 month cap process allow you to charge for contents and minimal expenses relating to ongoing services provided? Plus, since COPD is often a death sentence, when patients pass on do you re-use that same concentrator and charge a new patient another 60-months until they cap?
     

  2. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I'll try to answer in this post but may have to add a second post so look for it to follow. Firstly home oxygen is delivered in 3 different ways. 02 concentrator, high pressure cylinders, and liquid. I'll stick to E1403 and E0431 but I do want to point out that many companies provide liquid oxygen and have invested much more in their inventory and service costs to provide it. A typical 02 concentrator without a refill device costs around 400 dollars. I am not sure what the reimbursement is at the moment but would guess around 124.00. Now if you just dropped the thing off and did not have to do anything else than the thing would be paid for after 3-4 months. By paid for I mean the amount pps paid the manufacturer. So 4 months after delivery to a qualified patient pps would start to see a return on their investment if the patient stayed on service that long. However the portable reimbursement has never been profitable since Medicare lumped the two codes together. The E0431or portable is reimbursed as low as 18.00 bucks in some areas. Cylinders cost pps and other providers around 4 -5 dollars so a patient who requests 6 portables a week costs more than the reimbursement pps gets! Plus something you don't see in KY is that a driver goes out once a week or whenever a request comes in from the patient. Industry says that a driver stop costs around 40 dollars. So a patient receiving 4 deliveries a month could be costing pps 80 dollars for the portable contents and 160 dollars for the combined stops ( the delivery ). So the cost of the equipment is really not what the cost is can you now understand that? In reality you are providing the service and the equipment to effectively manage the patients copd or whatever in their homes. What makes this even worse for pps and other companies is that when the cap is hit the patient keeps ordering more portables which is a huge minus on the bottom line.
     
  3. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Additionally if pps financed the equipment ( some 02 providers finance their equipment for as long as 7 years ) then pps is paying a finance charge on top of everything else. Gas prices and other issues ( patient needs more cannulas and tubing also add to pps cost ) pps can not bill for them. So to be blunt pps incurs cost every month and Medicare quits paying after 36 months. It is stupid the industry just doesn't stop. Doctors would. To answer your other questions yes 02 concentrators can be used more than once but do require legitimate service between patients which would include the typical routine testing and changing of internal filters, biological filters, etc. If the unit was iin a smokers home it might have to be thrown out. Picking up the phone in a call center you probably had no idea about what goes on in a branch or the finance side. It cost money to provide this service.
     
  4. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

     
  5. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    THANK YOU! I am tired of the "my tax dollars" argument and people who have no idea on the real cost of serving patients. In a CBA that concentrator is going for $85, as will the rest of the country soon. The CCC is nice to have but makes more sense for a larger company. Our pendulum is swinging the other way now, so it makes sense to relocate some services.
     
  6. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    The person in the Kentucky location seems to think that pps gets a 60 months cap and the quoted seems to think its a 36 month cap. Isn't the cap 36 months of payment and then after 60 months they can start getting another 36 months? BTW, the person who described the obstacles that pps faces did a better job of explaining it in a couple of paragraphs than pps ever did. Information to employees is crucial and with this information I understand how hard it is for pps in this day and age. Thank You!
     
  7. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    The CCC is closing and patients in socal are being sold off.
     
  8. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Southern California patients being sold off? I know new reimbursement models have come out and rates may be as low as 45 % of the first bid. Its crazy that the industry low balls itself to the point of zero financial viability. Prior to being purchased by Linscare, American Home Patient was shopping its California stores to potential buyers. More information is needed.
     
  9. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    pps is doomed to parish, not a matter of if, it's when

    if you find an opportunity elsewhere take it
     
  10. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Disgruntled current and former PPS employees have been saying this for over five years now. Somehow the company keeps trudging along. Perhaps it is simply too evil to die!
     
  11. anonymous

    anonymous Guest