Apria billing and collecting will be coming from India soon

Apria to eliminate 90 local jobs
By Alex Gary
BusinessRockford.com
Apr 15, 2009 @ 05:32 PM

California-based Apria Healthcare will eliminate 90 jobs at its Machesney Park billing office over the next 12 months to combat federal cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates.

Apria officials notified workers Tuesday that it was consolidating the billing for its respiratory and home medical equipment businesses to centers in Phoenix, Kansas City, Kan., and Jackson, Tenn. Apria staffers provide supplemental oxygen, ventilators, nebulizers and sleep monitoring equipment to patients with emphysema, sleep apnea and other chronic breathing conditions.

Seven billing centers nationwide are being affected, Apria Executive Vice President Lisa Getson said.

Apria is a $2 billion home health-care provider with more than 500 locations nationwide. About one-third of its revenue comes from the Medicare program, and Getson said the cuts in January in respiratory care are the most severe in 20 years.

“Oxygen therapy took a 27 percent reduction in reimbursement compared to 2008,” Getson said. “That’s a severe reduction for all companies that provide respiratory care, and we had to reduce our nonpatient care costs while continuing to provide direct patient care services, such as in-home delivery, clinical visits and 24/7 on-call services through our branch network. Billing is something that can be done anywhere.”

Even after the 90 jobs are relocated, Apria still will have a significant presence in the Rock River Valley. It has 71 workers at the Machesney Park billing office, 4055 Steele Drive, doing billing for the company’s home infusion therapy division — where nurses administer intravenous or injectable therapies at home or in outpatient clinics. It also has 23 workers at another Machesney Park building, 10910 N. Second St., who provide direct care to area residents.

Getson said the company, which is privately owned by the Blackstone Group, is doing a number of things to help workers in the transition. She said the company hired a career counseling company to help workers with resumes or in the job search, is making workers aware of openings at other Apria locations and relocation assistance if they choose to move, and is offering retention bonuses to workers who choose to stay until their positions are eliminated.

“Our Machesney Park office has always done very well for us, and they’ve been very professional in taking the news,” Getson said. “The centers we chose to keep already are larger and are easier to expand from a real estate standpoint.”

Apria Healthcare was created in 1995 by the merger of Abbey Home Healthcare and Homedco, national companies that both had local operations. The North Second Street building was expanded in 2002 for more than $2 million. Getson said Apria will continue to use the Steele Drive office building for at least another year.

Reach Assistant Business Editor Alex Gary at agary@rrstar.com or 815-987-1339.

Comments (1)
Each of the ninety jobs will be performed in India by Indians ... at 40% of payscale ..... within six months.

Why doesn't Lisa Getson come clean and admit that ninety local families will lose their paychecks, lose their healthcare (COBRA is temporary), and join the long, long unemployment line ... to facilitate the bottom line of a morally bankrupt corporate entity:

Apria ... which merged with Corum ... which was bought by Blackstone ... the multi-national Hedgefund (they hedge their downside by firing Americans)

http://www.businessrockford.com/archive ... local-jobs

Apria Is Demoralized wrote: It' true who knows if any expanision of the billing centers remaining will even be done. Considering that all billing/collections are being outsourced to India! The company is already trying to sign up current employees to go to India and train the individuals that will have our jobs!!!

rooster wrote:
It is great to learn another culture first hand!

BTW, go to some cockfights while you are there. They are very popular and legal.