WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 13, 2016)—The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare—a coalition of home health providers dedicated to improving the integrity, quality, and efficiency of home health care for our nation's seniors—recently expressed deep concern regarding the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposal to require the prior authorization of Medicare home health services.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 7, 2016)—On December 29, 2015, CMS published the final rule to Medicare Program: Prior Authorization Process for Certain Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies. This comes a year and a half after the proposed rule, which came out on May 28, 2014. Originally CMS proposed that the timeframe for a response to a prior authorization request would be made within 10 days or two days for expedited requests.


WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 29, 2015)—CMS finalized the rule to implement Prior Authorization for general DMEPOS items. The final rule was published on December 29th. The proposed rule, published in May 2014, suggested that a prior authorization requirement be imposed for selected HCPCS that are frequently subject to unnecessary utilization. The originally proposed master list consisted of 139 HCPCS.