With the uncertainties of the new onslaught of Medicare cuts on respiratory equipment and the growing opacity and dynamism in the customer supply channel, Donald Spence, CEO at Philips Home Healthcare Systems has issued a statement putting paid to “rumors” that they – in effect – were “going direct” to consumers.
Rumors had been fueled by Philips-Respironics programs of drop-shipping supplies directly to consumers.
The company response is:
Supply Direct is a drop-ship service designed to help providers grow and manage their business. It enables
providers to order and directly ship OSA replacement supplies to their patients’ homes through a convenient
Web portal. This program was developed for and with the input of our customers to help them focus on patient
care, while reducing costs and inventory investments. This creates opportunity for homecare providers and
improves patient compliance.
o EncoreAnywhere is another example of how we are working together to meet market needs. The system
connects all the various care givers with access to a common view of patient compliance data and information
related to their patients’ sleep therapy. And it enables our customers to proactively gather, present and share this
information efficiently through a secure Web portal. This system is intended to provide a lower cost, more timely
and accurate methodology for monitoring patient acceptance to their therapy over manually intensive legacy
alternatives. It also provides a lower cost when changing prescriptions in the field.
The company has embarked on an advertizing campaign to make their perspective clear, in addition to this download on their website.
By the way - I called this one in July.
