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Invacare Exits FDA Consent Decree Injunctive Phase
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the time [clinicians] have.”
Monaghan said that talking to wheelchair users makes
him to want to create products that could make their lives simpler and more efficient.
“I interface with clients who tell me very interesting stories: ‘I was on my way to a job interview, and the battery died.’ Well, why did the battery die? Could we have predicted that better so they could have gotten to that job interview? Or instead of just red, yellow, green LEDs on the battery indicator, which don’t really tell you too much, what they really want to know is ‘Can I get to the grocery store and back without the battery going dead?’ We can do that now.”
On the supplier end, Monaghan said, “We’re creating a business segment around complex rehab, and that includes integrating our sales force. We
used to call on complex rehab technology (CRT) customers with an Alber sales rep, a Küschall sales rep, an Invacare sales rep, a Motion Concepts sales rep, a Freedom Designs sales rep. We didn’t make it as easy as possible to do business, and that’s all being integrated. So now, my vision, which is a current reality, is a provider meets one Invacare representative, and they get the benefit of all that, from PinDot with its marketing-leading response times, to Alber and power add-ons that are really remarkable.”
A Clinical Focus
Monaghan said Invacare has invested in placing larger numbers of demo units into clinical settings, and with the injunctive portion of the consent decree lifted, those units can be taken home for client trials or can remain in clinics for longer periods.
“That makes evaluations a little easier,” he noted. “Over the last year, we’ve spent a great deal of time and effort recruiting people with strong clinical backgrounds because we want to be great partners to our providers. And because of all the differences that our products make, I want to make sure there are people in clinical settings that can help ATPs be successful.”
Asked if he had a message for an industry that has also been waiting for the big consent decree announce- ment, Monaghan said, “Thank you for your trust in us through this period of time. We want to be your best ally and supporter in successfully helping as many people in the world be as independent as possible. At the end of every day, that’s what motivates us.
“We do have a great purpose that’s absolutely aligned with clinicians and ATPs and end users and their families. We have got to do more than just make really great prod- ucts. We’ve got to reflect our nuanced understanding of what these families are going through. They have a lot of other things to do, and we can certainly help them even more than we have.” m —Laurie Watanabe
MWC Accessories Bill to Drop in U.S. House
By the time you read this, the complex rehab technology (CRT) industry could already have a manual wheelchair accessories bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In an early-August news announcement, NCART said it expected the bill to drop after Congress returns from its summer recess after Labor Day.
The bill would prevent the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from using Medicare compet- itive bidding-derived pricing to set allowables for acces- sories used on CRT manual wheelchairs.
CMS agreed in June not to use competitive bidding pricing to set allowables for accessories used on CRT power wheelchairs. But those same accessories, when used on manual CRT wheelchairs instead, are still subject to funding cuts that went into effect this summer.
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Representatives John Larson (D-Conn.) and Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) will introduce the bill, said NCART Executive Director Don Clayback: “This will replace the previously introduced, broader bill, H.R. 1361, written to prohibit CMS from using competitive bid pricing for accessories used with either CRT power or CRT manual wheelchairs.”
At press time, the upcoming bill had 33 original co-sponsors, and NCART was urging industry stake- holders to use the summer recess to reach out to their reps and encourage them to sign on.
“Passage of this new bill is needed to fix the current disparity that prevents people who use a CRT manual wheelchair from having the same access to CRT accessories as those using a CRT power wheelchair,” Clayback said. m
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