Providers dodge a bullet

WASHINGTON - The HME industry received a rare piece of good news Sept. 19, when Senate leaders scrapped a plan to reduce the cap on Medicare oxygen payments to 13 months. "This isn't a done deal--we won a skirmish, not the war," said John Gallagher, the VGM Group's vice president of government relations. By that, Gallagher means that the House of Representatives could still draft a bill that proposes to reduce the cap from 36 to 13 months. If that happens, Senate and House members would have to compromise on a final bill. Reducing the cap to 13 months would save Medicare about $6 billion over five years. Senators had wanted to use those savings to help avoid cutting physician reimbursement by 5.1% on Jan. 1, 2007. Once VGM got wind of the proposed cap reduction, the Iowa provider-services company mobilized all 400-plus employees and providers throughout the state. Together they inundated the Washington, D.C., office of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, with calls asking him to remove the cap from the bill. As chairman of the Committee on Finance, Grassley wields tremendous power in the Senate. "He heard from his constituents," Gallagher said. "It was a good showing of what grassroots can do in the home district." "I'm going to sleep a lot better tonight," Invacare CEO Mal Mixon told the crowd at AAHomecare's Humanitarian dinner at Medtrade the night the industry received the news. "We have dodged a bullet." But because the cap could turn up in a House bill, "you have to watch this every day," said Michael Reinemer, AAHomecare's vice president of communications and policy. "That is why we have to build long-term relationships with members of Congress," Gallagher said. "This is going to be a long-standing fight."