DME Owners Launch Online Forum
The HME industry now has a new voice in cyberspace. After an informal discussion at a recent HME meeting, a small group of DME owners was inspired to launch an online forum that allows providers to weigh in on issues facing the industry.
The site — www.competingbid.com — is the brain child of a small group of DME owners who were trading ideas at the HME Summit in Baltimore Sept. 10. "We all shared the same belief: we learn as much from each other, if not more, as we do from the event we?re attending," says Chris Rice, of Diamond Respiratory Care Inc., Riverside, Calif. "We wanted to continue the dialog, and free exchange of ideas and questions. The next night I put together a simple online forum for our group to use. During the day we got to talking about it and interest started to grow. I was writing the address out for people left and right."
Rice said he later discussed the idea with Dexter Braff, the moderator of the HME Summit, who agreed the idea was a great one. The free forum offers a grass-roots approach to bringing the industry together.
"We wanted to keep the ideas flowing. I thought a simple user forum would do that for us nicely. So, at about 3:00 a.m. it was up and running," says Rice.
Check out the site at www.competingbid.com.
This article originally appeared in the September 2006 issue of HME Business.