AAHomecare

WASHINGTON, D.C (September 29, 2016)—This past spring, AAHomecare widely distributed a survey to members and other companies in the respiratory segment exploring the possibility of restructuring the basic tenets of respiratory reimbursement via a new payment methodology focusing on Chronic Respiratory Management.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 22, 2016)—This month, two vibrant state HME associations will transition leadership after their fall conferences.

The Wisconsin Association of Medical Equipment Services (WAMES) announced that longtime executive director Ann Barrett will be retiring after the organization’s annual conference at the end of September in Delevan, Wisconsin.

ATLANTA (September 7, 2016)—Team USA, the current and back-to-back World Cup Power Soccer champions, will play exhibition games at Medtrade on November 1 in Atlanta. Players will be introduced in the morning at the Washington Update session hosted by AAHomecare, where United States Representative Tom Price (R-Ga) has been invited to speak. Two full exhibition games, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, will be played on the show floor.

WASHINGTON, D.C (August 26, 2016)—Home medical equipment providers who serve our nation’s military personnel are being hit with shocking new Medicare reimbursement cuts thanks to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) decision to widely apply rates from its competitive bidding program outside its original footprint in metro areas to now encompass the entire country.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 24, 2016)—Yesterday, AAHomecare submitted comments on CMS-1651-P, a rule from CMS that proposes to make some adjustments to the Competitive Bidding Program. CMS proposed to make several positive changes, such as increasing the bid ceiling to the 2015 unadjusted fee schedule and expanding the appeals process for breach of contract actions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 18, 2016)—Do you know a champion for the HME profession? The AAHomecare is now accepting nominations for an AAHomecare member who has made an exceptional contribution to the homecare sector throughout their career. Attributes that will be recognized include:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 18, 2016)—Laura Williard, AAHomecare’s senior director of payer relations, met with representatives of Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the AIM Sleep Management program to establish a relationship and open a dialogue to represent HME provider interests.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 26, 2016)—The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) has launched a new initiative to survey medical professionals and other individuals in the caregiving continuum to measure the impact of recent Medicare reimbursement cuts on seniors, as well as people with disabilities and chronic conditions.

Responding to Reimbursement Cuts: Billing Non-Assigned and Other Options (An AAHomecare webinar)

Presented by: Jeff Baird, Brown & Fortunato

Wednesday, July 27, 2:30-4 p.m. EST

We now know what Medicare reimbursement is…and it is not pretty. The bottom line is that Medicare will pay as little as possible for DME. And yet, with 78 million baby boomers retiring at the rate of 10,000 per day, the demand for DME will dramatically increase.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 14, 2016)—Last year, AAHomecare began meeting with CMS’s CERT contractor oversight team to discuss efforts to lower the DMEPOS industry’s CERT error rate. In 2010, the DMEPOS CERT error rate was at an all-time high of 73.8 percent. As of 2015, the error rate has decreased to 39.9 percent. In an effort to better understand the driving force of the error rate, AAHomecare submitted a FOIA request for detailed data on the denial reasons.

PADME Act Stalled in Senate July 15, 2016. Read the update here. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 7, 2016)—The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) has commissioned Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, LLC to conduct a full study of suppliers’ fixed and variable costs for furnishing the services associated with supplying durable medical equipment. While limited cost study analyses have been performed in the past, this will be the first to consider DME in multiple categories that are under threat by competitive bidding pricing.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 6, 2016)—The American Association for Homecare praised legislation to delay a new round of Medicare reimbursement cuts for rural and non-bid area home medical equipment providers that passed the House today. An amended version of the Patient Access to Durable Medical Equipment Act of 2016 (H.R. 5210), passed through the House via voice vote Tuesday, includes the following provisions:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 6, 2016)—Results are in from the most recent HME Audit Key survey. The latest round of results including ADRs from October 1, 2015 thru March 31, 2016, show the following:

—via AAHomecare

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 30, 2016)—We’re just two days away from the second phase of bidding-derived cuts for rural and non-bid area suppliers. With the House currently out of session, there’s no chance of action before July 1.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 24, 2016)—Just minutes after AAHomecare updated members about the status of rural relief legislation on Capitol Hill, they received CMS’s announcement of the release of the 2016 DMEPOS fee schedule amounts set to take effect on July 1 for certain items outside of Competitive Bid Areas that were adjusted based on information from the bidding program.

—via AAHomecare

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 24, 2016)—As reported to the AAHomecare membership Wednesday, we were successful in passing an amended version of S.2736 through the Senate via unanimous consent on Tuesday evening.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 23, 2016)—Legislation to delay a new round of cuts to rural and non-bid area suppliers and provide additional fixes to the Medicare competitive bidding program for home medical equipment (HME) was passed by the Senate late yesterday. The legislation (S. 2736), passed through the Senate via unanimous consent, would:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 16, 2016)—AAHomecare has received confirmation that competitive bidding rural relief legislation is starting to move through the hotline process in the Senate. The bill is first being cleared through the Senate Finance Committee, who have until noon Thursday (June 16) to object to the bill. Once the bill clears the committee, it will go to the full Senate.