US Med-Equip acquires N.J. firm
The Houston medical supply company US Med-Equip said Thursday it has acquired a New Jersey competitor as the COVID-19 pandemic drives medical equipment sales and rentals.
The privately held US MedEquip said the acquisition of Martab Equipment Management Services will give it access to markets in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic States, where Martab has seven regional branches stretching from Maryland to Massachusetts and west to Ohio. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
US Med-Equip rents out 60,000 pieces of movable medical equipment and parts, such as hospital beds and portable venti
lators, to health care providers. In March and April, demand for ventilators and high-flow humidifiers, which bring warm air with higher concentrations of oxygen into the lungs, exploded. Both devices are crucial to the care of COVID-19 patients nationwide.
Previously, US MedEquip served roughly 150 Houston-area health care providers and more than 2,200 nationwide, nearly 35 percent of hospitals in the country. Many of its bigger customers, which have operations in the Northeast, have pressured the company to expand into the region, a large market for hospitals and other
health care providers, said Gurmit Singh Bhatia, chief executive officer of US Med-Equip.
“That’s where we saw the progression in becoming a national company,” Bhatia said. “There’s a large amount of hospitals and a population that could benefit from our offerings.”
Martab offers rentals for specialty devices such as
infant incubators, blood pressure monitors and infusion pumps. The acquisition will add 45 employees to US Med-Equip’s workforce.
“Together, we will help more health care providers and the purchasing organizations that support them in taking care of patients in need,” Ed Gay, president of US MedEquip, said in a statement.
Hospital systems, nursing homes and other medical providers are increasingly reliant on rentals to fill niche needs as equipment becomes more sophisticated and technology improves faster than budgets grow. Renting a ventilator, US Med-Equip officials said in March, would cost $500 to $1,000 per month, compared with $15,000 to $25,000 to purchase. Conversations around acquiring Martab began in late 2019 and were pushed back because of the pandemic, Bhatia said. US Med-Equip is looking at other opportunities for expansion in the Midwest and West Coast, Bhatia said.