News

Strong Grassroots Effort Needed to Ask House Members to Join  Letter Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) has released a Congressional sign-on letter to leadership at CMS, HHS, and OMB asking for additional relief for the HME community in the proposed ESRD/DMEPOS Rule currently under consideration.  We are asking HME providers and other stakeholders to ask their Representatives in the House to join the letter as soon as possible. The letter, which can be seen here, expresses support
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There’s Still Time to Make Your Voice Heard – Even a Brief Message About How Current Reimbursement Rates Are Impacting Your Business and Patients Will Make a Difference We’re down to the home stretch in the comment period for the ESRD/DMEPOS Proposed Rule.  For those of you who haven’t shared your comments, there’s still time to add your voice to the comments. I hope that all AAHomecare member companies and others in the HME community will take at least 30 minutes
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The American Association for Homecare submitted comments today on the ESRD/DMEPOS Proposed Rule that CMS released in mid-July. “CMS has taken an important step towards improving the bidding program in their proposed rule,” noted Tom Ryan, president and CEO of the American Association for Homecare.  “Adopting a clearing price methodology, coupled with implementing Congressionally mandated provisions to reduce the influence of non-serious or unqualified bidders, should result
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Across the country, health care plans are looking for innovative, cost-effective solutions to meet members’ needs.  However, a developing trend across the payor landscape, particularly in the Medicaid MCO space, is the application of sole source contracts and narrow network arrangements for the provisions of HME and related services.  The HME industry and consumer groups have serious concerns about the shortcomings of such arrangements and the ultimate negative impact it will have
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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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