NCART Video Scores with House Ways and Means Committee

ATLANTA–For years industry advocates have complained that
Washington officials simply don’t understand HME.

But according to Rita Hostak, vice president of government
relations for Longmont, Colo.-based Sunrise Medical and president
of the National Coalition for Rehab and Assistive Technology, a new
video may have helped to change the situation, at least for some
members of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which has
jurisdiction over Medicare on its side of Capitol Hill.

Speaking at a Sunrise press briefing Wednesday morning during
Medtrade, Hostak said both she and NCART lobbyist Denise Henry
found it “extremely difficult” to explain in a 15-minute
appointment with legislators unfamiliar with the industry how HME
coding, coverage and pricing issues are interrelated.

Particularly in working to educate legislators on problems with
the power mobility LCD, Hostak said, “we were struggling to get
across [why concerns about downcoding and stand-pivot] are
important.” So instead, Sunrise developed a video for NCART that
shows how powered equipment serves its users on a day-to-day
basis.

The 12-minute video features a 54-year-old man with multiple
sclerosis. During the film, the patient demonstrates the real-life
difficulties of a stand-pivot transfer from his power wheelchair to
his bed. He tells an interviewer that without his powered seating
system, he would need full-time assistance to complete daily
activities like transfers. The video follows the patient throughout
his home and outside.

“It’s bad enough I have this disease, but at least I have a tool
to help me overcome the negatives about the disease,” the patient
says.

In an appointment shortly before Medtrade, Hostak and Henry
showed the video to members of the Ways and Means Committee.
Watching the patient’s struggle to compete even the simplest
activities of daily living “definitely had a powerful impact,”
Hostak said, adding she is hopeful that as the government’s power
mobility policy evolves, that impact will have a positive
effect.

Hostak noted that after viewing the video, several committee
members said they would contact regulators about the PMD
LCD.