By Liz Carey
In its July 11, 2018, proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) pitched new lead item pricing as a measure to improve the competitive bidding program, saying the change would greatly reduce the complexity of the bidding process and the burden on suppliers since they would no longer have to submit bids for numerous items in a product category.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 24, 2020)—Seema Verma, Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in a blog post that the consumer-facing Compare tools (Hospital, Nursing Home, Home Health, Dialysis Facility, Long-term Care Hospital, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Physician and Hospice) will be rolled into one new tool called Medicare Care Compare housed on medicare.gov.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 17, 2020)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced their strategy to implement the manual complex rehab technology (CRT) provisions that were incorporated in last month’s Omnibus Bill (HR 1865) that passed on Dec. 20, 2019.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 10, 2020)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and the Operational Guide for the Review Choice Demonstration (RCD) to include additional information on how the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) will affect the demonstration.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 8, 2019)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is accepting applications for a technical expert panel (TEP) to develop functional outcome quality measures for the home health setting.
The TEP nomination period closes on Jan. 17, 2020.
Project Overview:
WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 18, 2019)—Provisions permanently excluding manual complex rehab technology (CRT) wheelchairs from the competitive bidding program have been included in FY 2020 appropriations legislation. The legislation also exempts CRT manual accessories from bidding-derived pricing for an 18-month period, starting Jan. 1, 2020.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 12, 2019)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is requesting comments from the public on questions to include in their competitive bidding program survey to stakeholders. CMS is interested in surveying stakeholders such as beneficiaries, contract suppliers and discharge planners to monitor the program in real-time. These comments are due Friday, Dec. 20.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 5, 2019)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have posted the Notice of Preliminary Bid Evaluation (PBE) and sent emails for all bidders noting whether they have met bidding requirements in areas including PTAN status, surety bond, licensure and accreditation.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 26, 2019)—The National Quality Forum (NQF) recently posted the list of Measures Under Consideration (MUC) for future use in the hospice quality reporting program (HQRP) and the home health quality reporting program (HHQRP). The list is released annually, and there is an opportunity for stakeholder comment. In fact, comments were due Nov. 25, 2019.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 22, 2019)—The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently conducted an audit of hospice organizations to check on the quality of hospice care and ensure registered nurses were conducting visits every 14 days. Below is a summary of the findings. The full report is found here.
ATLANTA (November 21, 2019)—Trella Health, a source for current and complete post-acute outcomes data and performance analytics, published its most recent Industry Trend Report and released a new quarterly data set. Trella customers now have access to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) claims data through the second quarter of 2019.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 20, 2019)—The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued Change Request (CR) 11527, which includes further updates to the Claims Processing Manual, chapter 10, related to the Patient Driven Groupings Model (PDGM).
Washington, D.C. (November 6, 2019)—Days after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its final rule governing the new payment model for home health care, industry advocates are asking for guidance from the community on what to do next.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 4, 2019)—Two United States representatives have introduced legislation to protect patient access to non-invasive ventilators, the American Association of Homecare reports. HR 4945, the Safeguarding Medicare Access to Respiratory Therapy (SMART) Act, sponsored by Reps.
Updated November 1 with statement from NAHC
WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 31, 2019)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid on Thursday, Oct. 31, issued its final rule governing the transition to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) for home health care—cutting its assumptions for behavioral changes almost in half.
