Tag: national roll out

WASHINGTON - The Council for Quality Respiratory Care says lawmakers should heed the findings of a new white paper that raises concerns about the roll out of competitive bid rates nationwide.The “State of Expert Judgment Regarding Medicare's Competitive Bidding Program for Durable Medical Equipment,” published by The Moran Company, looks at the history and intent of the program, its implementation, the problems that result when bid pricing is used to develop reimbursement amounts for...

WASHINGTON - Just days after CMS released new payment amounts for the latest round of its competitive bidding program, two senators have introduced a bill that would delay a second round of cuts planned for non-bid areas on July 1, 2016.Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.C., introduced S. 2736 to delay the cuts 15 months to Oct. 1, 2017. A first round of cuts went into effect in non-bid areas on Jan. 1.CMS earlier this week released the new payments amounts for the Round 2 re-compete....

WASHINGTON - With only the first of two planned cuts in effect, industry stakeholders say a freeze of current rates in regional and rural areas is their best bet.“It's hard to put the genie back in the bottle,” said Tom Ryan, AAHomecare president and CEO. “The cuts are here so our champions believe that this is our best alternative.”On Jan. 1, Medicare began paying for HME in regional and rural areas based on a 50/50 blend of the previous fee schedule amounts and the bidding...

WASHINGTON - Industry stakeholders hit the ground running last week with the introduction of a second bill that would lessen the impact of competitive bidding.“We just have a few hours left to get this done,” said Jay Witter, senior vice president of public policy at AAHomecare. “We are doing everything politically, legislatively, and at the grassroots level.”Introduced Dec. 8 by Reps. Tom Price, R-Ga., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., H.R. 4185 is similar to its Senate companion...

WASHINGTON - After finding several errors in its revised 2016 DMEPOS fee schedule, CMS has posted an updated version to its website, AAHomecare has announced.The fee schedule maps out adjusted payment amounts for 11 product categories as part of the national roll out of competitive bid pricing on Jan. 1.The first version of the revised fee schedule was released on Nov. 23.CMS has developed payment amounts for non-bid areas by using the average pricing in the competitive bidding areas in the...

BALTIMORE - CMS will revise its recently released 2016 DMEPOS fee schedule after finding errors, the agency has announced.The agency released the revised fee schedule Nov. 23. It includes adjusted payment amounts for 11 product categories as part of its national roll out of competitive bid pricing on Jan. 1.“CMS identified errors in the fee schedule amounts for some items and will therefore be releasing revised fee schedule files within the next week,” the agency stated on Dec. 1. “A...

WASHINGTON - CMS has released a revised fee schedule format and a preliminary list of rural zip codes for the national roll out of competitive bidding.The agency had previously announced plans to apply bid pricing in non-bid areas on Jan. 1, 2016, by using regional prices limited by a national ceiling (110% of the average of regional prices) and floor (90% of the average of regional prices). Pricing will be slightly higher in rural areas.While industry stakeholders were still digging through the...