News

Friday’s release of MedPAC’s report to Congress on Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System represents another missed opportunity by the Commission to address the serious problems with Medicare’s competitive bidding program for durable medical equipment (DME) as well as the disastrous application of bidding-derived pricing to rural and other less-populous communities.   “Medicare’s bidding program for DME and the expanded use of bidding-derived pricing beyond
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Reforming the Competitive Bidding Program Background In 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act authorized the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop a program for home medical equipment (HME) to find market-based prices to replace the current fee-for-service prices.  CMS implemented the DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program in 2008, which was halted a mere two weeks later by Congress due to program design and execution problems.  With a few cosmetic changes to the auction
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Rural Relief from the Competitive Bidding Program Take Action! Join rural relief efforts by visiting the Action Center to send a message to elected officials requesting co-sponsorship of HR 4229, Protecting HOME Access Act.  Issue Brief for H.R. 4229 Congressional Directory Background In 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act authorized the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop a program for home medical equipment (HME) to find market-based prices to replace
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Rural Relief from unsustainable Home Oxygen Therapy Rates Join home oxygen therapy rural relief efforts by visiting the Action Center to send a message to elected officials requesting co-sponsorship of HR 4229, Protecting HOME Access Act.  Issue Brief: Rural O2 Access Congressional Directory Background In addition to the drastic rate reductions for home oxygen therapy under the Competitive Bidding program, suppliers of this life sustaining, legend drug in rural and non-bid
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Suppliers in the 19 states currently subject to the Power Mobility Devices Prior Authorization Demonstration Project are encouraged to take a brief online survey to provide feedback on their experience with the demonstration.  The survey is being spearheaded by a work group in AAHomecare’s Complex Rehab & Mobility Council (CRMC) that will be providing feedback to CMS on the demonstration project, which is currently slated to end August 31st. Click here to take the survey; responses are
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Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has released a Congressional sign-on letter asking Capitol Hill leaders and key committee chairs/ranking members to include provisions in forthcoming legislation to fund government operations. The deadline for signatures on this letter is Thursday, March 1 at 12:00 PM ET (noon). In the letter, which can be found here, Rep. McMorris Rodgers states….. "Due to mounting concerns about access to this cost-effective and patient-preferred method of
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Statement on the confirmation of HHS Secretary from Tom Ryan, president and CEO of the American Association for Homecare:   "AAHomecare and the home medical equipment (HME) community are gratified to see Alex Azar confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). His previous high-level experience at HHS and background as an effective and accomplished health care executive makes him uniquely qualified to help resolve significant challenges facing our nation’s
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Welcome: Thank you for visiting the American Association for Homecare’s website. Our membership includes providers and manufacturers of home medical equipment (HME) as well as other organizations such as buying groups, distributors, billing specialists, and consultants who support this industry. Together, we fight for fair public policy and sustainable reimbursement rates for the home medical equipment sector in Washington and at the state level, in concert with our state and regional
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Last week, the AAHomecare Board of Directors approved the following changes to the Board and Executive Committee: Current AAHomecare Board member Joel Mills (CEO, Advanced Home Care – Greensboro, N.C.) has been appointed to the Executive Committee to fill the treasurer post that was previously held by Jeff Hall (president & CEO, Reliable Medical Supply – Brooklyn, Minn.) Gary Sheehan (president & CEO, Cape Medical Supply – Sandwich, Mass.) has been appointed to take the
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AAHomecare is concerned with the CMS policy on non-consumable supplies as it applies to CPAP. Recently, AAHomecare submitted comments to CMS on the DME MAC bulletin on non-consumable supplies that requires providers to confirm the need for more supplies and refill no sooner than 14 calendars days before the shipping date, confirm the beneficiary request for a refill, and hold off on shipping until 10 calendar days before the beneficiary’s current supply runs out. AAHomecare members
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