In brief: competitive bidding, sleep, infusion and more

BALTIMORE - CMS has scheduled the next meeting of the competitive bidding advisory committee for June 16, just about two weeks before round one is slated to begin on July 1. The timing of the meeting has left members of the Program Advisory and Oversight Committee (PAOC) feeling concerned and disappointed. One member even called the timing "ridiculous." "Everything will be lock loaded and ready to go," said Seth Johnson, Pride Mobility's vice president of government affairs. "It minimizes the impact or even the potential impact the PAOC could have in correcting any of the problems or anomalies or issues that come up in the next couple of months as they try to roll out the program." Industry attorney Asela Cuervo said that while the PAOC meeting does cut it close to the start of round one, she hopes CMS will at least answer policy questions it did not answer at the last meeting in November. Those questions include, for example: How will a company's financial standards be evaluated? How will CMS determine when a competitively bid price is too low? "They kept saying that they couldn't respond to these questions because they were in the middle of a bid," Cuervo said. "My guess would be that they are trying to schedule a meeting in between that gap when one bidding process is closing and before another one opens." Will Round one be delayed? Stranger things have happened WASHINGTON - No one in the HME industry's counting their chickens before they hatch, but a ray of hope exists that round one of competitive bidding could be delayed, at least for period of weeks or months. Invacare's Senior Vice President of Government Relations Cara Bachenheimer noted that CMS has yet to roll out its beneficiary education program. Nor has it announced the winning bidders. The longer CMS waits to do either could potentially delay the July 1 start date, said Bachenheimer and others. There's also a chance that industry champions in the Senate and House of Representatives could apply political pressure on CMS, requesting that the agency delay round one until it further studies the impact on providers and beneficiaries. If round one is delayed, it will not be a great surprise, given that numerous delays in rolling out the program have already occurred, said industry attorney Asela Cuervo. "This thing is so huge that it would be a big surprise if everything worked as clock work," she said. " It's is a dramatic change." Study: Sleep deprived Americans cost companies billions WASHINGTON - Work is cutting into the sleep and sex lives of many Americans, according to the National Sleep Foundation's Sleep in America poll, released March 3. Americans spend on average 4.5 hours each week catching up on additional work at home, on top of a 9.5-hour average workday, according to the poll. Of those taking work home, 20% spend 10 or more hours per week and 25% spend at least seven hours on job-related tasks. And the sleep-deprived are accepting their drowsy state, with 63% saying they just keep on going and 32% using caffeinated drinks to stay alert. More than half--54%--are likely to try and catch up on sleep during the weekend. Infusion associations asks CMS to guarantee delivery ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The National Home Infusion Association (NHIA) asked CMS to ensure "delivery of home infusion drugs upon discharge from an acute care setting within the earlier of 24 hours or before the patient's next required dose." The letter was in response to CMS's draft letter to potential Part D drug plans sponsors for 2009. CMS's draft asks that: "Part D sponsors ensure that their network home infusion pharmacies provide delivery of home infusion drugs within 24 hours of discharge from an acute setting, or later if so prescribed." NHIA wants to ensure that patients will receive their next dose on time if less than 24 hours will pass, as is common for infusion therapy. NHIA's full comments can be read on the association's Web site: www.nhianet.org. Apnea Rx surpasses January sales goal LYMAN, S.C. - Southern Home Medical Equipment sleep subsidiary, Apnea RX, generated sales of $65,805 in January, surpassing its sales projection of $60,000, the company announced in February. Apnea Rx specializes in CPAP/BiPAP for the treatment of sleep-disordered breathing. "When we acquired Apnea Rx this past year, we established an immediate footprint for servicing the growing sleep market," said Greg Tucker, president of Southern Home Medical, in a release.