Industry, armed with data, ramps up advocacy for bid relief

WASHINGTON – Home medical equipment (HME) stakeholders had several high-level meetings scheduled the week of Sept. 28, including with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to discuss the expected negative impact of the next round of Medicare’s competitive bidding program (CBP).

AAHomecare recently released the results of a survey that estimates more than 1,700 DMEPOS companies would be at risk of downsizing or closing down if a new remote-item delivery framework goes into effect as part of the CBP.

“CMS continues to say that there will be margin erosion, but you won’t see the amount of losses that (we’re) saying,” said Tom Ryan, president and CEO of AAHomecare. “We think that’s completely untrue. You can’t go from thousands of suppliers down to five or six and think you are not going to see market changes.”

Targeted bills would delay bidding

That negative impact is a message the industry – from top-level officials to grassroots HME providers – has sought to drive home as it seeks support for separate bills to delay competitive bidding for urology and ostomy supplies, and CGMs and insulin pumps.

At press time, AAHomecare was optimistic that the bill to delay bidding for urology and ostomy supplies would be introduced in the House of Representatives as soon as the week of Oct. 5.

“There was a lot of work done there, with meetings over recess, but the contacts we have made have been vital,” said Jay Witter, senior vice president of government relations for AAHomecare.

Other industry bills provide momentum

Stakeholders have been buoyed by recent successes for other industry legislation. The Senate has followed the House in passing the Choices for Increased Mobility Act, a bill that will create two new HCPCS codes: one for bases made with titanium or carbon fiber, and another for bases made without those materials.

The SOAR Act (H.R. 2902 and S. 140), which aims to support access to supplemental oxygen, also continues to gain momentum, and currently has 69 co-sponsors in the House and nine in the Senate.

Stakeholders stay in front of lawmakers

With the mid-term elections fast approaching in November, the biggest challenge now will be getting and maintaining the attention of lawmakers, who are back in their home districts, says Ike Isaacson, senior vice president of government & regulatory relations for VGM Group.

“We’ve got to turn that advocacy into policy change, but we’re having a ton of discussions and our members are hosting legislators in their shops, so they are really getting a first-hand account of how policies made in D.C. directly impact patients,” he said.