NCART Hits the Hill for Support of Complex Rehab Carve-Out

WASHINGTON–Hoping to put a face on complex rehab and drum up
support for a bill that would exempt it from competitive bidding,
the National Coalition for Assistive Rehab Technology will hold a
Capitol Hill press conference next week featuring consumers who use
the equipment.

The event falls on Sept. 25, the same day the bid window closes
for the initial round of CMS’ DMEPOS competitive bidding program.
The press conference will be held at 11 a.m. in the Rayburn Health
Building.

“The goal is to raise the visibility of H.R. 2231,” said Sharon
Hildebrandt, executive director of NCART, referring to the Medicare
Access to Complex Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Act of
2007.

Introduced in May by Reps. Tom Allen, D-Maine, and Ron Lewis, R.
Ky., the bill seeks to carve out complex rehab equipment from the
competitive bidding program, which will be implemented in July
2008.

Industry stakeholders have challenged the inclusion of complex
rehab in the project, saying that the equipment is too customized
to be considered a commodity. In its position paper on the bill,
NCART also notes: “Competitive bidding fails to allow for the level
of services and significant costs associated with the delivery of
complex rehab technology to people with disabilities.” The paper
also points out that “significant savings will not be achieved by
including complex rehab technology in competitive bidding.”

So far, the carve-out bill has 18 cosponsors.

“The legislation needs a vehicle to be attached to,” Hildebrandt
said. “It’s very unclear what’s going to happen with any Medicare
bill this year. We would hope that if one gets put together, [our
bill] could be included in that.”

Hildebrandt said she and other stakeholders used Congress’
annual summer recess to stump for the bill. “We did a lot of visits
over the August recess,” she said. “We hope that will bear some
fruit pretty soon.”

The visits to legislators have largely been educational, she
said, because few of them are familiar with complex rehab.

The press conference itself will be educational in nature.
Hildebrandt said that in addition to comments from Reps. Lewis and
Allen, two consumers who use the equipment “will speak on how
complex rehab has helped them.”

That should help put a face on the issues, she said. “It’s the
consumers of complex rehab that are going to be hurt by [including
complex rehab in competitive bidding].”

In addition to the press conference, NCART continues to
encourage provider action to get H.R. 2231 passed. It has joined
with several other stakeholder organizations to create a Web site,

www.ComplexRehab.org, where visitors can read background and
text of the bill and access tools for supporting its passage.
Several documents are available on the site that can be used as
guides in communicating with referral sources and clients, as well
as for urging members of Congress to pass the bill.

“Successful passage will ensure that people with complex
disabilities receive the products and services they need,” the site
says. “Congress needs to understand what this means, and it is
critical they hear directly from you.”