MedCare moving to new $ 4.9M Westmoreland County facility
A home medical equipment giant is consolidating warehouses and moving 15 miles east into a new $ 4.9 million Westmoreland County facility, leaving Monroeville behind.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for Wednesday for the 100,000square- foot MedCare Equipment Co. LLC warehouse, located in the Bushy Run Corporate Park in Penn Township.
MedCare, based in Greensburg and founded in 1987, sells medical equipment for in- home use, including wheelchairs, respiratory equipment and orthopedic bracing supplies prescribed by a physician.
The Westmoreland County warehouse will replace 39,000 square feet of space that MedCare — which has distribution centers in Pittsburgh, Altoona, Erie, Greensburg and Jamestown, N. Y.
— currently leases on Rico Drive in Monroeville.
The developer received a Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority loan of $ 2.25 million for the project, said David A. Reese, owner of Murrysvillebased Commercial Choice Realty Inc. and broker for the site. Among the advantages of the move was an end to the mercantile tax on sales, which the company had to pay in Monroeville.
MedCare, which operates a number of clinics and retail outlets in Western and Central Pennsylvania, was formed by Excela Health before adding partners Heritage Valley Health System, Conemaugh Health System, Butler Health System, Washington Health System, Indiana Regional Medical Center and the most recent member, UPMC.
The new MedCare building — a little smaller than two football fields — will be the biggest in its industrial park, Mr. Reese said. MedCare said it would lease three- quarters of the building.
MedCare employs 350 people, with a staff of 50 planned for the new Westmoreland County warehouse. In addition to equipment retail sales and rentals, the company is a contractor for Medicare, which is among the biggest purchasers of home medical equipment.
Medicare spent about $ 6.1 billion on home medical equipment in 2017, down from $ 6.3 billion in 2016, according to government figures. A requirement in recent years that vendors bid competitively to provide certain areas with home medical supplies was expected to save Medicare and consumers $ 42 billion over 10 years, according to a 2012 estimate.