Navigating Onerous Fees: One Indiana Member’s Story

January 31, 2023

How Collaboration, Persistence, and NFIB Saved My Small Business Thousands of Dollars

Navigating Onerous Fees: One Indiana Member's Story

When Dr. Jane Hermes received word that she would owe the FDA almost $7,000 in registration fees the coming year, she was angered by the inequity of the law. That’s because she, along with most small businesses who make medical devices cannot afford this onerous fee. Dr. Hermes started calling and writing to all the members on Congress on the committee who write the legislation. Hermes assumed someone would listen because for small business, the legislation was so obviously unfair and harmful. However, her efforts garnered zero responses. Finally, one of her former employees suggested she join NFIB. That’s when Dr. Hermes finally started making headway. Dr. Jane Hermes’ business is more of a passion project than a job. She started Turbo Wheelchair in 1992. She knew that patients were provided with heavy and burdensome wheelchairs, which forced them to remain homebound, becoming prisoners in their own home! Dr. Hermes developed an easily assembled lightweight plastic wheelchair with help from a grant provided by National Institutes of Health. It’s the only all-synthetic resin manual wheelchair in the world. After some small success, her business changed 12 years ago when she received a call for help. Dr. Hermes developed and now provides wheelchairs for a new niche market where wheelchairs can be a significant hazard. Dr. Hermes’ product is making a real difference in public safety: the federal government is the largest purchaser of the wheelchairs, which are used in mental hospitals and prisons so inmates and patients cannot turn them into weapons.

Unlike traditional wheelchairs that were never designed to be used in a prison environment, Dr. Hermes’ invention is lightweight yet durable, constructed of a unique molded synthetic that cannot be fashioned into weapons.

For registration fees, the Food and Drug Administration classifies Jane’s small business alongside big corporations with thousands of employees. The FDA collects user fees from companies that produce medical devices to offset its budget. The FDA has negotiated a rapidly increasing user fee schedule for applications with big businesses – leaving small businesses like Dr. Hermes’ with a giant bill. Jane’s application user fee – which has increased 160% since 2013 – is the same as the likes of Johnson & Johnson, putting the squeeze on the smallest of small businesses and making it hard for many to stay in business. “The fees are ridiculous! It’s not fair. You can explain this to anyone and in 90 seconds they understand how unfair it is,” said Dr. Hermes. NFIB worked with Jane and the offices of Senator Mike Braun, Senator Maggie Hassan, Congressman Larry Buschon, and Congressman John Yamuth to secure a small business fee waiver process in the most recent user fee reauthorization. Through collaboration and perseverance, members of Congress learned about the FDA’s onerous application fee schedule and why it was unfair to small business owners. Finally, ensuring that Congress heard her voice and her small business story, they produced a compromise solution.

Dr. Hermes’ plastic wheelchairs weigh in at just 34 pounds, making traveling, maneuvering, and transportation simple and convenient.

“NFIB helped me negotiate the bureaucracy of the federal government, where it is nearly impossible to have your voice heard. I learned that if you don’t speak out and tell your story, Congress won’t listen. Many have no idea what it takes to run small business and, if they don’t understand, then they can’t make informed decisions when they vote on legislation that can make or break a small business owner. My work isn’t done yet – I will continue to rely on NFIB to help on this issue until its resolved: small business owners should have a tiered user fee, where large corporations pay more than a small operation like mine.”

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State:

Indiana

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Navigating Onerous Fees: One Indiana Member's Story

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