AAHomecare Announces Advocacy Priorities

ALEXANDRIA, Va.–Last week, the American Association for
Homecare announced its advocacy priorities for 2005. They
include:

–Protect HME and home health from further cuts in any
legislation passed during 2005.
–Counter competitive bidding in light of recent reimbursement
cuts, and expand the focus on the CMS program advisory oversight
committee (PAOC) on competitive bidding.
–Protect the dispensing fee amount of $57 per monthly supply for
inhalation drug therapies.
–Maintain the market basket increase and rural add-on for home
health services and oppose co-payments for home health.
–Change the exclusionary rule, which compares Medicare and private
charges and, according to the association, could exclude Medicare
providers whose charges are considered excessive based on that
comparison.
–Preserve current reimbursement for stationary oxygen systems in
light of efforts to move to a modality-specific payment model.

The association announced it would tackle additional areas as
they emerge. Work in home health will also focus on raising
awareness of the home health benefit among the Medicare Payment
Advisory Commission, or MedPAC, preserving home health benefits in
Medicaid and creating opportunities in the areas of
pay-for-performance and telehealth.

For more news, visit this week’s HomeCare Monday,
available at www.homecaremonday.com.