SADMERC Medical Director: Power Chair Coding is Top Priority

Atlanta

Dr. Doran Edwards hopes the third time’s the charm for Medicare’s new power mobility codes.

Following CMS’ announcement that it would delay implementation of the codes — originally issued in February and revised in mid-September — the SADMERC medical director announced that he will now devote his full attention to reworking the codes once more and will lead an advisory panel to do so.

“I have suspended all of my other SADMERC duties for this one project. Whatever it takes, I’m willing to put in the time to do,” he said at an Oct. 19 Medtrade session presented by the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology.

“This is the third formal attempt to come to a consensus that you agree with, CMS agrees with and the DMERCs agree with,” Edwards told the audience. “This will impact the future of power mobility. We must get this right.”

On Oct. 14, CMS announced it would delay implementation of the codes, which had been scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2006. Just a month earlier, the agency added 13 codes to the 49 it had issued in February and modified testing requirements.

But speaking again at an Oct. 20 session sponsored by Sunrise Medical, Edwards explained that CMS recognized additional codes were needed to accommodate lightweight travel vehicles, which had not been recognized in the first round of codes.

Beyond that, he said, there were also concerns with some safety issues surrounding the codes, and that testing labs might not be consistent in the way they performed tests for the new codes.

To remedy the situation, Edwards said CMS will empanel a 12-member technical committee to give input on the codes. The agency is quickly soliciting participants for the group, which he hopes will include manufacturers, providers, engineers, technicians and clinicians — “all of those who have stakeholder status with respect to power wheelchairs,” Edwards said, adding that Medicaid has also expressed an interest in participating on the panel.

With an as-yet-unnamed CMS contractor as facilitator, the panel will be seated within the month, he said.