Tag: COVID-19 Pandemic

WASHINGTON – The Biden-Harris administration will require COVID-19 vaccination of staff within all Medicare- and Medicaid-certified facilities, including HME providers, to protect both them and patients from the virus and its more contagious Delta variant, CMS announced on Sept. 9.  CMS, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says emergency regulations requiring vaccinations for nursing home workers will be expanded to include hospitals, dialysis...

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold in early 2020, Apria, like most other companies, had no idea what to expect, says CEO Dan Starck.  “It’s been an interesting 17 months,” he said. “We’re still observing all things related to good practice, PPE, contactless delivery. We’re contemplating bringing people back at some point, but that’s the exception right now.”  Starck spoke with HME News recently, reflecting on lessons learned...

WASHINGTON – Xavier Becerra, secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, on Monday extended the public health emergency from July 20 for another 90 days.  There are several HME-related provisions tied to the PHE, including:  Medicare’s 75/25 blended reimbursement rates for non-rural, non-competitive bidding areas  Waivers of the coverage criteria and face-to-face requirements for respiratory therapy  Reimbursement for telehealth services...

Being the recipient of Google Alerts for “oxygen concentrator” is a scary and sad place to be right now.  I have these alerts set up for a number of key terms in the HME industry – think “sleep therapy” and “home infusion” and “AdaptHealth” and “Invacare.” They’re delivered to my email inbox every afternoon.  Recent alerts for “oxygen concentrator” have been almost exclusively related to...