Kevin Fraser, President

For more than 10 years, Star Cushion Products Inc, Freeburg, Ill, has been a manufacturer of therapeutic wheelchair cushions and mattress overlays. Rehab Management recently had the opportunity to speak with Star Cushion Products founder and president, Kevin Fraser.

Q: Tell us about your company.

A: Star Cushion Products is now in its 11th year of service providing high-quality products and technologies for wheelchair cushioning and hospital bed overlays. We have always been dedicated to customer service, quality, and product innovation. In addition, we do custom applications, including offsets for leg discrepancies, commode chairs, shower chairs, recliners, pediatrics, and bariatric. Turnaround time for customs is only about 1 week.

Q: What are the three best technologies Star Cushions offers? Why?

A: The Starlock, the only cushion to lock up individual air cells for very aggressive positioning, as opposed to only having options of isolating the cushion in either hemispheres or quadrants; the new Star-Lite cushion—introduced at this year’s Medtrade—a very lightweight (1 pound) cushion featuring contoured air cells, and offering an economical solution with high-end results; and the new Soft Cell design, which has been utilized over our entire line of wheelchair cushions, as well as our nonpowered, Group 2, StarMatt overlay. The revisions made to create the soft cell have really made a tremendous impact on our company. The Starlock and Star-Lite are both "patent pending" technologies.

Q: How do the new soft cell line of cushions and the new Star-Lite cushion help position people?

A: The soft cell line has not really made direct changes in terms of positioning. However, when merged with the Starlock technology, the cushion not only becomes adjustable for immersion and basic setup procedures, but also can lock-up to the desired positioning needs of the client. The Star-Lite, by design, has built-in contouring, which addresses the anatomical form and features a "voided area" under the coccyx to isolate and provide maximum pressure relief to the surrounding tissues.

Q: How have recent coding and reimbursement changes affected the seating industry?

A: We thought the coding issues needed to be addressed for some time. Overall, the changes have brought clarification to the therapeutic benefits offered by seating products. Under the old system code, cushion differentiation was limited and did not represent the wide range of products or the differentials in manufacturing costs. Today, coding categories delineate specific criteria based on performance, durability, and safety, ensuring appropriate seating intervention for the clinical application.

Q: What has been Star Cushion's response to these changes?

A: Star has consistently maintained the highest quality products in the market. As the policy changes evolved, Star worked closely to understand and fulfill every requirement (eg, fire retardancy, warranty, performance tests, load tests, etc). When the new policies were set in place, Star had validated its product quality in meeting and/or exceeding the higher coding standards of performance, safety, and durability.

Morgan Saffari is a contributing writer for  Rehab Management.