Briefs: HME industry ad pops up in Politico

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - AAHomecare in November ran full page ads blasting competitive bidding in Politico, a widely read Capitol Hill newspaper. The ads featured the full text of the recent letter from 167 economists criticizing the program. The head reads: "In Letter to Congress, Economists and Auction Experts Predict Medicare Bidding System for Medical Equipment Will Fail." The ads will reach thousands of readers in Washington, D.C., including members of Congress and their staffs. The ads were funded by the "Stand Up for Homecare" campaign.

AAHomecare board includes new face

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - AAHomecare's board of directors in November appointed Pete Coburn of Sunrise Medical to fill a vacant seat on the board. Coburn is president of U.S. commercial operations for Sunrise, based in Fresno, Calif. He replaces Joel Mills, president and CEO of Advanced Home Care, based in High Point, N.C., who resigned from the board after "many years in service in the leadership of the association."

Groups: Report bidding problems

WASHINGTON - AAHomecare and NAIMES encourage providers and others to report bidding problems to them so they can relay those problems to CMS and Congress. Pre-implementation of the program, those problems included bid winners who are bankrupt or who lack the required state licensure or who have credit problems. AAHomecare directs providers, physicians, clinicians and patients to go to www.aahomecare.org and click on "What's New" to fill out an online form; NAIMES directs them to go to www.competitivebiddingconcerns.com.

PECOS update:CMS delays edits

BALTIMORE - CMS will not start denying HME claims that contain the names of physicians who haven't enrolled in PECOS on Jan. 3, AAHomecare reported Nov. 24. In a bulletin to members, the association stated: "CMS informed us today that the January 3 effective date for PECOS edits has been indefinitely postponed. There is no target date for when an edit that would result in a front-end rejection would be implemented. However, we have been assured that such an edit would not go into effect until everything was 'in place.' We were also told that CMS would provide adequate notice in advance of implementing such edits. This notice would be provided not only to homecare providers but clinicians and beneficiaries."