Page 10 - Mobility Management, November 2017

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Avid Rehab Invests in CRT
With Support from The VGM Group, Merits Health Products Commits to the Complex Rehab Industry
Merits Health Products is getting big-name support as it enters the complex rehab technology (CRT) segment.
Known for more than 30 years for its durable medical equipment offerings — including scooters and consumer power wheelchairs, along with beds, home oxygen systems and bath safety products — Merits established Avid Rehab in 2016 and has been getting marketing support from U.S. Rehab, the CRT division of The VGM Group.
Avid’s First Group 3 Power Chair
Avid’s initial offering is the Vector, a Group 3 power wheel- chair with multiple powered positioning options, including tilt, recline, seat elevation and elevating legrests.
But the Vector launch isn’t the only way Avid is making headlines. Avid Rehab is working closely with U.S. Rehab and its approximately 400 independent CRT provider members, who have about 1,500 locations across the country.
Greg Packer is president of U.S. Rehab, and he told Mobility Management, “[U.S. Rehab] is the largest rehab network in existence to be able to work with someone like Avid Rehab — to be able to say yes, we can get your message out with pinpoint accuracy to the people you need, and you can also go out and communicate with
those folks and do business with them.”
Dave Jones, Avid’s national sales manager, said, “It’s
an official relationship, and it’s a relatively new one that we’re both extremely excited about.”
Early marketing efforts have focused on introducing the K0861-coded Vector.
As this issue went to press, Avid announced that a heavy-duty version of the Vector had just received official coding from Medicare’s Pricing, Data Analysis
& Coding contractor. Jones said, “It’s the Vector HD,
and that will be [coded] K0858 and K0862 — then we’ll have both a tilt and recline option and a tilt-only option available on that. Additionally, we’re coming out with a tilt-only option that’s in testing as we speak for the Vector. So currently, our Vector’s a Group 3, K0861 with tilt and recline, and then you can get the E1012 articulating foot platform, and all of the options and accessories are certainly available.”
Proven Performance
While the Vector is new to American clinicians and ATPs, Jones pointed out that the power chair uses well-established technology, including Penny & Giles and R-net electronics.
“Our standard electronic platform is the PG VR2,” Jones said. “If you want to upgrade to switch input or a display or head array, then your option would be R-net. The entire system is pre-wired, so it’s plug and play. Say you’ve only gotten tilt and recline as your initial options, but you
end up getting independent articulating ELRs [elevating legrests]. You can add those at any time; the wiring harnesses are there. We’re trying to make the system as simple as possible, but the electronics platform we’re using is common in the industry. It’s been used for years and is extremely familiar to all of our provider partners.”
The team at Avid expects the Vector to differentiate itself from other Group 3 power chair products via its wheelbase and motor technology.
“We’re recognized worldwide as one of the largest manufacturers of power mobility motors in the world,” Jones said, referring to Merits. “With this chair, we’re able to accomplish a wheelbase at 25" with direct inline motors. They’re extremely powerful, extremely reliable,
The Vector is Avid Rehab’s first complex rehab offering. A heavy-duty version of the Vector has just received official PDAC coding.
8 NOVEMBER 2017 | MOBILITY MANAGEMENT
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