WASHINGTON — Late Wednesday, President Obama renominated Donald Berwick as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
HomeCare News
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, companion bills were introduced in the House and Senate to repeal the medical device tax included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
ATLANTA — After years of trying to fend off debilitating Medicare reimbursement cuts, HME providers have, as of Jan. 1, found themselves in a new reality. CMS' dreaded competitive bidding project has kicked in and the first-month purchase option for power wheelchairs has been eliminated. It's a new home medical equipment world — and that world is still emerging.
WASHINGTON — Could a presidential executive order be the key to revising, if not repealing, the DMEPOS competitive bidding program? The answer could depend on whether or not President Obama is keen on enforcing the order, according to a spokesman for the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness.
BALTIMORE — On an Open Door Forum call Jan. 19, CMS officials made a string of announcements and answered a range of caller questions, some going over old territory and some completely unexpected.
BALTIMORE — Solicitation of beneficiaries and records storage were on the list as CMS attempted to clarify questions raised by the expanded supplier standards within the text of a Jan. 14 FAQ.
MALIBU, Calif. — Veteran HME consultant Jack Evans has launched the Alliance for Retail Homecare. "It's a networking forum for retailers, a stage where they can meet each other," said Evans, who has long advised providers on how to build the HME retail component of their businesses. "People are always dealing with issues that others are dealing with, too."
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Medtrade organizers are now accepting abstracts for the Medtrade 2011 educational conference, which will take place Oct. 24-27 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.
Specifically, Medtrade and its Educational Advisory Board are looking for dynamic speakers with extensive knowledge in the HME industry. Session topics should fall within one of the following tracks:
WASHINGTON — Following President Barack Obama's Jan. 18 Executive Order calling on federal agencies to dial down overly costly and burdensome regulations, the American Association for Homecare sent him a letter asking for a review of "onerous and outdated regulations that hamper job creation and threaten access to quality home medical equipment (HME) and services under the Medicare program."
CINCINNATI — CarePoint Partners announced Jan. 17 that it has acquired ivA Lifetec, a home infusion provider serving the Houston, Texas, market. With this acquisition and its purchase of Allied Preferred Care, a Dallas-Fort Worth infusion services company, in October, CarePoint adds the two largest markets in Texas to its service area across the eastern and southern regions of the United States.
Audax Is New Majority Owner at ATG
ROCKY HILL, Conn. — ATG Rehab has announced a majority investment by Boston-based Audax Private Equity. With 26 offices serving 19 states, the complex rehab provider said in a Jan. 18 release that company founders Chuck Wallace, Mike Freedman, Tim Burfield and Bryan Cressey would remain "significant minority investors."
EDISON, N.J. — Jeff Ackerman of Jeff's Surgical Supply, a full-service provider in Edison, N.J., could have started the New Year off better, he said.
At 2 a.m. on Jan. 3, the HME veteran got a call asking how many delivery vehicles his company owned. The local police were looking at a videotape showing an individual getting out of a Jeff's Surgical truck and breaking the front window of a convenience store down the street.
WASHINGTON — In a Jan. 12 letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the National Community Pharmacists Association repeated its request for a permanent competitive bidding exemption for community pharmacies.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On Monday, California Gov. Jerry Brown released a state budget for fiscal 2011-12 proposing a "painful" $1.7 billion in spending cuts for Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, including a cap on DME benefits.
WASHINGTON—In its most recent report to Congress, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission found that the use of services by similar beneficiaries varies substantially from the highest- to the lowest-use areas of the country.
WASHINGTON — ">Competitive bidding may have started, but the industry hasn't stopped its efforts to get the program repealed.
On Thursday, the American Association for Homecare sent a letter to leaders in the House of Representatives asking them to include repeal of the DMEPOS bidding program in H.R. 2, the bill that would repeal the entire health care reform law.
ATLANTA — Round 1 rebid winners reported a mixed bag of results Friday, the end of the program's first week, but they were united on at least one issue: The worst is yet to come.
While some contract providers reported smooth transitions and an uptick in business, one said the CMS project was hitting small HME businesses that won single contracts very hard.
AMARILLO, Texas — According to health care attorney Jeff Baird of Brown & Fortunato, there are a number of legal pitfalls related to subcontracts and purchasing contract suppliers involved in competitive bidding. (See Don't Ignore the Legal Pitfalls, Dec.
ADEL, Iowa — Evo Medical Solutions announced last week it has acquired North Huntingdon, Pa.-based Inspired Technologies and its SmartDose auto-adjusting oxygen conserving device. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
DANBURY, Conn. — In a Dec. 15 press release, Praxair said it intends to sell the U.S. home care portion of its North American health care business.