CMS Takes a Tour

ARLINGTON, Va. — “If a picture is worth a thousand words,
perhaps a facility tour is worth a thousand pictures.” At least,
that’s what staff members at the American Association for Homecare
are hoping. The following item appeared in the association’s Jan.
27 newsletter:

Today, AAHomecare staff participated in a comprehensive tour
of an HME facility conducted for four senior officials from the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The purpose of
the visit was to better inform the CMS officials about the
challenges facing HME providers and the benefits of HME for
patients.

The host company was AAHomecare member Roberts Home Medical
in Maryland. The tour of their Germantown, Md. office was planned
by Barbara Rogers, executive director of the National
Emphysema/COPD Association and Walt Gorski, AAHomecare’s VP for
government affairs. Both Rogers and Gorski serve on the Program
Advisory and Oversight Committee (PAOC), which was set up to advise
Medicare officials about the “competitive” bidding program for
HME.

Four Roberts Home Medical staff (Louis Kaufman, Roger
Runkles, Gwen Turner, and President Lynn Bryson) gave the Medicare
officials an overview of the process including intake, delivery,
home assessments, clinical assessments, monitoring of the patient,
and documentation issues. The day included visits to the homes of
two patients as well.

Barbara Rogers commented beforehand that she wants to make
sure CMS has “a full overview of what it takes to completely and
safely service a beneficiary – especially highlighting the
education, service and maintenance components.”

AAHomecare works with federal officials every week on a
variety of issues, but the facility tour hosted by Roberts Home
Medical provided a unique “rubber meets the road” opportunity to
bring regulatory issues to life. The Association thanks Roberts
Home Medical, Barbara Rogers, and the CMS officials for taking time
to participate in the informative tour. AAHomecare will continue
its efforts to organize site visits for congressional and
Administration officials to help educate policy makers of the
importance of HME to millions of patients.