AAHomecare to Launch New HME Provider Benefit

ARLINGTON, Virginia—The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare), a nonprofit organization advocating for home medical equipment (HME) services and supplies policies, announced a new HME benefit for provider members, the company wrote in a recent newsletter to members. The benefit, AAHomecare payer transparency portal, is set to launch in January.  

“AAHomecare has been working on this new benefit for over a year, with a goal to help elevate the conversations providers are having on contract negotiation with payers,” said Laura Williard, senior VP of payer relations at AAHomecare. “Being armed with this information can help you make more informed decisions with the published facts around reimbursement rates.”

The company said the benefit will impact HME provider members in the following ways: 

• Nationwide Payer Insights: Users have the ability to tap into data from more than 60 major commercial insurers in order to understand reimbursement trends and payment rates.
• Competitive Benchmarking: Users can compare reimbursement rates to those of peers and competitors.
• Smarter Negotiations: The benefit allows users to leverage detailed data segmented by payer, geography and billing codes to advocate for fair, competitive rates.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced the data transparency in coverage final rule, which requires group health plans and commercial payers to disclose pricing information for covered items and services; however, accessing this kind of data content would be time-consuming and costly for providers. The AAHomecare payer transparency portal aims to simplify this process, offering providers the necessary insights to succeed—at no additional cost to HME provider members.

AAHomecare will be hosting a live, complimentary webinar on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 2:30pm ET to explain the portal and demonstrate how it can support reimbursement strategies. Registration for the webinar is available here.