MCKINNEY, Texas (May 23, 2017)—Soleo Health, a national provider of specialty home and alternate-site infusion services, announced it is aggressively advocating for thousands of home infusion therapy patients that stand to be affected by the recently enacted 21st Century Cures Act.
Washington D.C. (May 17, 2017)—A letter authored by Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) is calling for reforms to policies and regulations involving durable medical equipment and complex rehab technology. The letter is to be sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and CMS Administrator Seema Verma.
—Via AAHomecare, WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 10, 2017)—On Monday, CGS, the DME MAC Jurisdiction C and B contractor announced that they are prepared to begin reprocessing claims that are subject to the CURES-mandated fee schedule adjustment. The mass adjustments will be conducted in batches. They will be processing claims five days a week and it is expected to take 24 weeks to complete. Jurisdiction C has approximately 4.7 million claims and is planning to reprocess 40,000 claims per day.
—Via AAHomecare, WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 10, 2017)—AAHomecare continues to press the case for longer-term relief for rural and non-bid area providers, as well as for significant structural improvements to the Competitive Bidding Program with Federal regulators.
—Via AAHomecare WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 2, 2017)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has updated the fee schedule for rural and non-bid areas to adjust reimbursements to rural providers for products and services furnished between the July 1–December 31 period.
—Via AAHomecare, WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 26, 2017)—According to research AAHomecare had been performing using Medicare data, the number of traditional suppliers of home medical equipment to Medicare beneficiaries has dropped 40.9 percent since July 2013. In addition, the number of unique locations (commonly referred to as rooftops) serving Medicare beneficiaries has declined by 38.7 percent during the same period.
—via AAHomecare WASHINGTON, D.C.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (April 18, 2017)—Evans Incorporated, a provider of human-centered organizational, process, technology and operational consulting solutions focused on safety and fail-safe solutions in aviation and health care, today announces the launch of its CAARMA Emergency Health Preparedness Solutions Suite.
—Via AAHomecare WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 5, 2017)—On Tuesday afternoon, AAHomecare president Tom Ryan, Jay Witter, AAHomecare senior vice president of public affairs, Cara Bachenheimer, senior vice president of government relations with Invacare, and Thomas Barker, an attorney recently engaged by the Association, met with CMS Administrator Seema Verma and Deputy Administrator Demetrios Kouzoukas, as well as several other HHS and CMS staffers.
—via AAHomecare (March 23, 2017)—Earlier today AAHomecare shared HME industry recommendations for fixing significant problems with CMS’s DMEPOS competitive bidding program with HHS Secretary Tom Price. The recommendations focus on six major areas:
WATERLOO, Iowa (March 21, 2017)—VGM Group, Inc. has submitted a formal letter of regulatory priorities to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price.
The letter outlines three top priorities that VGM's membership has identified that require immediate action from the administration in order to prevent reductions of access to care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 9, 2017)—Legislation to prevent the application of bidding-derived pricing for CRT accessories was introduced in the Senate and House last week. The Senate bill, S. 486, introduced by lead sponsors Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and its House companion, H.R. 1361, introduced by Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and John Larson (D-Conn.) both show strong bipartisan support from initial co-sponsors.
LENEXA, Kan. (March 9, 2017)—Mediware Information Systems, Inc. is hosting a free webinar for attendees on Tuesday, April 4, 2017, at 1:00 Central, 2:00 EST, to learn how the new Trump administration may impact DME providers and the current competitive bidding program.
LAS VEGAS (March 1, 2017)—At Tuesday morning’s Washington Update, AAHomecare senior staff recounted important achievements from the last six months and discussed the prospects for additional gains for the HME industry in 2017. AAHomecare president and CEO Tom Ryan led off by describing 2017 as a year of opportunity for HME on the public policy front, thanks in part to new leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
via AAHomecare WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 15, 2017)—As we reported last week, CMS has released guidance to the DME MACs for retroactive reimbursement adjustments for rural/non-bid area providers for equipment and services furnished between July 1-Dec. 31, 2016, as mandated by CURES legislation that passed late last year.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 13, 2017)—CMS released last week guidance to the DME MACs for retroactive reimbursement adjustments for rural/non-bid area providers for equipment and services furnished between July 1–December 31, 2016. These adjustments follow provisions in last year’s CURES legislation providing a measure of relief for rural/non-bid area providers.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 8, 2017)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has decided to temporarily delay moving forward with the next steps of the Round 2019 Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Competitive Bidding Program to allow the new administration further opportunity to review the program.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 31, 2017)—CMS today announced plans to consolidate all rounds and areas included in the competitive bidding program for DME into a single round of competition to be known as Round 2019. The Round 1 2017, Round 2 Recompete, and National Mail-Order Recompete contract periods for all product categories will all continue through December 31, 2018. Round 2019 contracts will take effect on January 1, 2019, and run through Dec. 31, 2021.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 30, 2017)—The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) is calling on the contractors administering TRICARE military health plans nationwide to reprocess claims for home medical equipment for the last six months of 2016 on account of provisions in recent health care legislation affecting Medicare reimbursement rates.
