Bill Communications.

Who: Bill Communications

What: Medtrade '99

Where: Ernest Morial Convention Center, New Orleans 

When: November 3-6

Number of attendees: 26,096

Exhibiting companies: 1,065

ATTENDEES AND EXHIBITORS AT Medtrade '99 got a good dose of "lagniappe," the Cajun hospitality word for "a little bit more." They were offered extra educational sessions; viewed a slightly larger slice of the world in the exhibit hall, with first-time vendors from France and Germany; and became a bit more high tech, checking out the show's new Web site, [less than]www.medtrade.com[greater than].

What they got a little less of was exhibiting time. Organizers closed the halls at 5 p.m., an hour earlier than last year, to give attendees and exhibitors more time to network on Bourbon Street and elsewhere.

This year marked the twentieth anniversary of Medtrade, a major conference and exhibition of medical equipment and products for the home health care and postacute care fields. The show, now owned by Contemporary Long Term Care publisher Bill Communications, promises to build on this year's dual emphasis on long term care and home health care.

This year's long term care educational track included "Opportunities for HME Providers with Nursing Homes," "Compliance and Medicare Part B in a Long Term Care Setting," "The Contracture and Wound Connection," and "Medical Equipment and Assisted Living Fraud and Abuse Concerns."

State and federal regulators are scrutinizing the equipment industry, cautioned attorney Deborah Randall, who spoke on Assisted Living Fraud and Abuse Concerns. "The health services industry has been cut off from the rest of the business world," she said. "What originally was a courtesy, something of modest value, can now be an illegal inducement."

Louis Feuer, director of education for Medtrade Management Group, said seminars on reimbursement, customer service, marketing, and rehabilitation continued to draw the greatest interest. Seminars on consolidated billing also drew large audiences, he added.

This was the first year that attendees paid extra to attend the educational conference portion of the show. That perceived added value brought in more than 2,400 in attendance.

The largest previous attendance at the educational seminars was 1,600, organizers said.

But although the attendance at the educational conference was its highest ever, attendance overall dropped 5 percent from Medtrade '98 in Atlanta. Orga-nizers attribute that to recent consolidation of both manufacturers and dealers, as well as the difficulty in convincing some attendees to come to New Orleans.

Those who did show were rewarded with good times. The trade show kicked off with a Mardi Gras-themed mixer complete with the music, food, and parry atmosphere of New Orleans, attended by more than 1,000 exhibitors and attendees.

Back in the exhibit halls, it was clear how the products industry responds to changes in governmental policy. There were, for example, booths dedicated to safety syringes, just as states and Congress are considering needle-safety legislation for all frontline workers.

And Medtrade would not be Medtrade without the persistent hum of scooters. Attendees got to test drive the latest and greatest from a host of companies, skirting through the exhibit hall in ruby red mobiles.

The diversity of the show's product line is what makes Medtrade one of the largest of its kind. "One booth is a super high tech bathing lift and the next is as simple as a shampoo/body wash that doesn't require water," observed one attendee. "But both are just as important to care."

And the show's Web site, [less than]www.medtrade.com[greater than] pro-vides exhibitors and attendees the opportunity to sell and buy 24 hours a day.

Medtrade West takes place May 3 to 6 at Bally's in Las Vegas and Medtrade 2000 takes place October 3 to 5 at Orlando's Orange County Convention Center. For more information on either show, call 703-318-0300.