Tag: Reimbursement relief

Congress must pass legislation to continue funding the government before the end of the year.  Stakeholders have been asking lawmakers to include any of a handful of priorities in their legislation, but most importantly reimbursement relief.  Industry’s key piece of legislation, H.R. 6641, currently has 26 co-sponsors.  WASHINGTON – Stakeholders are working down to the wire to get industry priorities included in any end-of-year spending packages that Congress...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., met with MAMES members in Sioux Falls, S.D., on June 29 to discuss the critical issues facing the HME industry.  Members, as well as executives from AAHomecare and The VGM Group, discussed critical staffing shortages, cost increases and surcharges, flawed reimbursement rates and burdensome documentation requirements.  “Sen. Thune spent an hour listening to MAMES members explain how they were an integral part of the health care...

WASHINGTON – Members of the House of Representatives need to hear about the HME industry’s support for H.R. 6641, a bill that would implement a 90/10 blended reimbursement rate for Medicare in competitive bidding areas, AAHomecare says.  “AAHomecare has been in contact with multiple congressional offices since H.R. 6641 was introduced on Feb. 8,” the association stated in a bulletin. “While legislators and staff are familiar with the challenges the HME community...

WASHINGTON – Reps. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., and Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., have introduced a bill that would implement a 90-10 blended reimbursement rate for the 13 product categories that were removed from the current round of Medicare’s competitive bidding program.  The DMEPOS Relief Act would implement a previously used rate by CMS based 90% on bid pricing and 10% on the 2015 fee schedule, representing about a 10% to 15% increase compared to the current rates, to help address...

WASHINGTON – HME industry stakeholders and their champions in Congress are close to finalizing legislative language to provide reimbursement relief.  AAHomecare’s Jay Witter had a meeting scheduled on Jan. 14 with the staff of Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R.-Okla., who will take the lead on the legislation.  “We’re meeting for final approval, changes or (to address) any questions, but we’re hoping to wrap the legislation up quickly and get it introduced in...

WASHINGTON – CMS has published the DMEPOS Final Rule, making permanent the 50/50 blended reimbursement rates in rural areas but failing to provide relief in other areas.  For contiguous, non-rural areas, CMS says it will be paying suppliers 100% of the adjusted fee schedule rates using information from the competitive bidding program. For former bid areas, it says it will be paying the single payment amounts established during the program, plus an inflation adjustment factor on an annual...

WATERLOO, Iowa – VGM & Associates has sent a letter asking CMS, at minimum, to pay all HME providers in non-rural areas, including those in the 130 competitive bidding areas, the 75/25 blended reimbursement rates to help them offset increasing costs.  “Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, acquisition costs for many products have been rising steadily in the form of incremental price increases,” writes Clint Geffert, president of VGM & Associates in the Sept. 8 letter....

PHOENIX – When Congress breaks for recess next month, the industry needs to prime the pump for the fall, said John Gallagher, vice president of government relations for VGM, at Medtrade West.  “It’s time for the August of Action,” he said during a legislative update at that the show. “They’ll have the infrastructure package behind them, so when they come back, they will be dealing with issues related to Medicare and health care, so reach out to them while...

WASHINGTON – Industry stakeholders say Congress is “definitely getting back to work,” after a long spring, during which there was little movement on HME issues.  Stakeholders have been meeting with industry champion Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., to discuss legislative language for competitive bidding relief, line up a co-sponsor and identify possible vehicles for the fall, they said.  “We’ve had Hill visits, face-to-face meetings with members...

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...