I had to respond to this discussion. Didn’t want to, but had to! Tony,
Scott and John, SPS is not, I say again, is not extending a 50% discount to
Hanger facilities. I would hope that you guys do a bit more homework before
making this kind of general statement. We do get a discount for the items we
manufacture, but not across the board as your statements imply.
—–Original Message—–
From: Tony Barr
To: OANDP-L@LISTS.UFL.EDU
Sent: 7/23/00 2:44 PM
Subject: Hanger and Medicare Competitive Bidding of O&P services
Thought I may pass this on as an addition to Medicare competitive
bidding
discussion.
> Tony,
>
> Thanks for the reply ! Don’t know if you know this but Hanger now
offers
a
> 50% discount on supplies purchased from SPS by their own facilities.
Which
> means I pay 50% more for the same product making it impossible for me
to
> compete? I also believe by Hanger not telling the insurance
companies
that
> they have purchased Novacare they are involved in antitrust practices
by
> holding the same insurance contract under many different names.
Example
in
> Orlando they operated under six different names Hanger, Novacare,
Amputee
and
> Brace Center, Winter Park O&P, Danforth Orthopedic, and Opnet. All
these
> companies hold current insurance contracts thus taking a contract that
would
> go to another o&p company. I am interested in heading up a class
action
suit
> to stop this fraudulent practice. As I know I am not the only one
> experiencing this problem.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Scott
>
