There is money in bracing...GOOD money. The catch is you have to be a 1099 and set up your own company. Any company like EMPI, RS and others who carry a large executive overhead will keep the meat and give you the crumbs. You get a base, usually in the 40's. Then you get a percentage of sales on to. Most DME reps are making 60-75K, but the work isn't too hard. A lot of paper work, properly worded chart notes, test results, Letters of medical necessity ( form letters are being rejected), original signatures vs stamps etc...so a lot can go wrong.
Look at this model. Medicare patient with a secondary insured gets a back brace L0631. That brace, with a secondary, reimburses about $940. (varies by region ). The rep gets about $175 of that including base pay and commission. Not bad you say...do a couple a day and it's decent money. Problem is, you're also spending time doing splints that make $25, TENS unit for $35...so the good stuff gets diluted out. If you do a wholesale model where you sell to the MD offices, you get less $ and have to do more volume. The best payout is when you fit the patient face to face. That is the RS Medical model.
Now, I did that gig for 10 years. I watched the 'company' skim off the $ and give me the scraps. So I did some research, and set up my own company. I use Medicare approved insurance pass throughs, an independent billing company, and other passthroughs to give me "in-network" status with almost every major insurer. And this is key. There is only so much PIP and Workers Comp business. It pays very well, has easier requirements..and almost anyone can fit and bill. But that's changing fast, and they want certified fitters, orthotists etc..so the fly-by-nighters are folding their tents. So by being my 'own' supplier, under the umbrella of a larger clearing house, I get to keep the real money.
So now, that $940 brace looks like this: Minus $100 for the wholesale cost of the brace. Minus $188 for the biller/pass-thorugh. Minus $30 is misc. costs. The balance is about $640. And I get to keep all of it. If it's a private payor like Aetna, that drops to $350. But with a big company, that Aetna brace only paid me $125.
So now I can do back braces, cervical traction units, TENS units, splints, knee braces..and even the crappy stuff makes me a 100% markup. I did 3 LSO L0631 braces today. ! OA knee brace, 3 Medicare TENS units. With all the paperwork, it took 6 hours. I will collect $2870 +/- after all costs. Tomorrow, I have 5 Workers Comp back braces scheduled. ! per hour from 12-6. Some smaller items are mixed in there. Tomorrow will be a $3300 day. If I was still corporate, sure, I'd have a $500 a month car allowance, $1K in expense account, a lousy 25% match 401K. And a day like tomorrow would make me about a grand. BUT, if I missed my monthly numbers ( like when you take a vacation ), then a day like tomorrow might be a base-pay only day...$200. So corporate sales can be decent if you always hit the numbers. But as 1099, I can make good numbers ANY day I choose to work. For the last 5 mos, I work 2 days a week in the field ( 4-6 hrs ), 2 hrs each of those 2 days on the computer. I spend 1 day a week 6-9 hrs on the computer buying my product, chasing paper, doing follow ups..and starting the latest venture...a TENS disposable resupply company. Each patient is worth $35/mo after costs. Once you have 100 TENS patients out there....the supplies add up and the profit margin is about 250%. Think computer printer and ink....
So, if you have a customer base, balls to try your own gig, and the ability to get insurance coverage and billing..you can make some huge money. Corporate sales is OK, but you work for it. The CEO gets the real money off the products.