Rehab Management (RM) recently interviewed Ted Racquet, vice president, domestic sales, of Pride Mobility Products, Exeter, Pa.

Rehab Management (RM): Please tell us about your company.

Pride: Pride® Mobility Products® Corp is a leading designer and manufacturer of mobility products, including Quantum® Rehab, Jazzy® Power Chairs, Pride Scooters, Pride Lift Chairs, and Pride Silver Star® Lifts and Ramps. Headquartered in Exeter, Pa, the company has a manufacturing facility in Duryea, Pa, and also has operations in Australia, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the UK. Pride Mobility is dedicated to providing expertly designed, engineered, and tested products incorporating technologically innovative, intelligent features enabling end users to achieve their mobility goals, with particular emphasis on the development of complex rehabilitation power chairs.

Ted Racquet, VP of domestic sales

RM: Can you tell us about any of Pride's upcoming releases?

Pride: Pride Mobility's research and development department continuously strives to develop innovative means in which to accommodate the many needs of the complex rehab user in order to accommodate for their mobility and pressure-management requirements. Pride presently is developing a power lift and lift-and-tilt system that offers 10 inches of lift designed to enable the user to more readily access the environment. Pride will continue to enhance its electronics system, as well as continue its focus on customization, in order to make the power chairs as fully functional as possible for the end user.

Quantum Rehab also is introducing the Q614 power chair featuring an in-line motor and advanced ATX suspension. The Q614 is fully compatible with a broad range of seating and electronics options including the new Q-Logic NE controller, which features essential electronics, and the NE+ controller, which supports two actuators, and features 1/8-inch auxiliary jacks as standard. The new Q614 entry-level NE Series of electronics adds to the Q-Logic line with two exceptionally funding-friendly packages in the Group 3 standard, single power, and multiple power codes.

RM: How has competitive bidding affected Pride and the industry?

Pride: From the very beginning, Pride Mobility has played a leading role in communicating the negative impact competitive bidding would have on DME providers and the beneficiaries they serve. We have been extremely involved in a grassroots effort to not only help legislators become more familiar with the DME industry overall, and the importance of the mobility products they supply, but also the negative ramifications competitive bidding would have on the accessibility to these products. A delay in competitive bidding and the complex rehab carve-out are both significant and necessary victories for the industry. We need to continue to work with legislators to decrease the 9.5% cut in reimbursement scheduled to take place across the board on competitive bidding beginning on January 1, 2009. Our industry also needs to remain diligent in educating legislators on the negative effects competitive bidding would have on Americans with disabilities.

RM: Do you foresee changes in market conditions in the next year?

Pride: Given the current status of competitive bidding with the Congressional override of President Bush's veto of HR 6331, a new round of education is most likely going to be necessary in order to unravel from Round 1, to discover where the road is going to lead the industry next, as well as the great probability of CMS rewriting the overall competitive bidding program. Mandatory accreditation is slated for providers by September 30, 2009, and accreditation is based on compliance with quality standards. A revised draft of the quality standards, based on DME guidelines, is scheduled to be released by the end of July 2008 in preparation for the accreditation requirement. We at Pride Mobility feel that quality standards go a long way in protecting both the integrity of the industry, as well as the beneficiaries' best interests.

RM: Where do you see Pride Mobility in the next year?

Pride: Our focus from a government-relations perspective will be to continue our support of mandatory provider accreditation, and improvements to the competitive bidding process, with particular emphasis on the disqualification process. It appears that as the Medicare program moves forward, a provider who is being disqualified for insufficient or incomplete financial information, will be notified by Medicare of the specific information being required, and will be provided with the opportunity to respond accordingly.

Another area of focus will be on our continued investment in education and the leading role Pride Mobility Products plays in enabling our credentialed professionals to present CEC and CEU instruction to providers throughout the industry.

Pride Mobility's continued emphasis will be on developing rehab power chairs that incorporate the features, functions, and systems that are beneficial to our end-users.

—Rogena Schuyler Silverman