The American Association for Homecare expressed “grave concern” last week to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) over new product categories devised for the Competitive Bidding Program’s Round 1 Recompete.
In comments submitted to CMS on May 23, AAHomecare noted that the new categories include products never before included in competitive bidding and groups of products that just don’t make sense.
Specifically, the association noted:
• New product categories are outside the scope of the final rule on competitive bidding published by CMS.
• The expanded scope of categories makes it extremely difficult for many small or specialty providers to submit bids.
• And the category for “External Infusion Pump” is inappropriate for competitive bidding since this product and its supplies are typically provided by home infusion pharmacies, not HME businesses.
“CMS has acted outside of the program authority granted by Congress and outside of its final program rule in creating all‐new product categories of unproven and often disparate products,’’ AAHomecare told CMS.
AAHomecare requested that CMS reconsider product categories and exclude external infusion pumps entirely from competitive bidding.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012