AAHomecare Meets with GAO

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 2, 2017)—AAHomecare’s Kim Brummett and Mina Uehara recently participated in a Government Accounting Office (GAO) interview regarding patient access in non-competitive bid areas and followed up with a letter to the Agency summarizing key points from the session. In discussing the effects on patient access since the 2016 cuts, AAHomecare notes:

There is an absolute decrease in claims, and unique suppliers submitting claims, which tells the real story of what is happening. Beneficiaries no longer have access to their needed and beneficial DME due to a lack of suppliers, service, and product.

Discharge planners and other referral sources should be surveyed in an on-going manner to track patient access issues and concerns. The lack of a focused monitoring of referral sources and prescribers is a big gap in the current analysis and that must be included in future reports.

AAHomecare also reiterated their recommendation to GAO for independent monitoring of utilization that looks at disease state and utilization, such as analyzing all part A to part B spending for patients with diagnoses of COPD or OSA.

See AAHomecare’s follow-up letter here.

Visit aahomecare.org for more information.