Tag: Tom Ryan

WASHINGTON – AAHomecare is striking while the iron is hot with its recent decision to engage a public relations firm to help the industry show the value of HME.  “Home oxygen therapy right now is on the tip of the tongue to the average person (due to the COVID-19 pandemic),” said Tom Ryan, president and CEO of the association. “They’ve heard about vents, too. They know, what would a day without...

WASHINGTON – CMS’s decision to delay finalizing a proposed rule could signal the agency’s intent to focus on other matters, say industry stakeholders.  “We believe CMS is planning on issuing a proposed rule to modify the bid program,” says Cara Bachenheimer, who heads up the government affairs practice at Brown & Fortunato, where she is also a shareholder. “My guess is they are focused on that.”   In a notice...

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives has passed an amended version of H.R. 1868, extending the pause on the 2% Medicare sequester cuts through the end of 2021.    As a result, about $158 million more in Medicare payments will be made to HME providers over the rest of the year, on top of the $193 million provided by pausing the cuts from May 2020 through March 2021, according to AAHomecare.   “Keeping the 2% sequester...

WASHINGTON – With a new administration, a new Congress and new leadership at CMS and HHS still taking shape, there won’t be a lot of action on HME priorities for the next few months, say AAHomecare officials.  Among those priorities is a final rule expected to include a host of DME-related provisions.  “The new administration is reviewing all regulations and still getting staff on board,” said Jay Witter, senior vice president...

The bids are in for Round 2021. Now the HME community will wait until sometime next summer to see the prices set through the bidding process and a final announcement of contracted suppliers in the fall of 2020. The uncertainty as to how Medicare reimbursement rates will shake out presents business planning challenges for every segment of the HME sector, whether a company is in a bidding area or in a non-bid/rural area using bidding-derived pricing. The results will also impact rates from the spectrum...

The tide is finally starting to turn for the HME sector. In 2018, CMS added more than $1.5 billion to the Medicare benefit and to suppliers' bottom lines, mainly in rural America, thanks to the HME-related IFR released in May, along with the ESRD/DMEPOS Final Rule unveiled in November. These actions represent the most significant reimbursement relief for HME since the bidding program's inception.While this relief for HME was granted through regulatory action, it may never have seen the light of day...

WASHINGTON - Industry stakeholders are casting a wider net for providers to build more support for a bill that would provide relief from Medicare's competitive bidding program.As of Friday, providers had helped to push the number of co-sponsors for H.R. 4229 to 110.“We've got a core group of providers that have advocated all along and that's terrific,” said Tom Ryan, president and CEO of AAHomecare. “But we've also got sideliners who have let others do it and we've got to get them...

WASHINGTON - Industry stakeholders have kicked efforts to gather co-sponsors for H.R. 4229 into high gear and have no plans of slowing down, they say.Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., introduced the legislation Nov. 2, with 53 original co-sponsors. At press time, there were 75 total co-sponsors.“Right now, this is a good grassroots opportunity to show that there is an urgent need and a feeling in Congress that we have to fix this problem long term,” said Tom Ryan, president...

There's no getting around the fact that the HME sector remains under pressure thanks to significant cuts to Medicare reimbursement over the last few years. The effects of bidding program pricing, as well as the use of bidding-derived rates in rural and other non-bid areas, have hit almost every segment of this business hard. It's a fact I know first-hand as the former head of a New York-based oxygen provider.If you are an AAHomecare member, or you've been following our efforts in the trade press,...

WASHINGTON - Industry stakeholders have begun the task of shoring up support in anticipation of a bill that would provide some relief from the competitive bid program.Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., has released draft language of the legislation, which would extend a retroactive delay of a second round of reimbursement cuts in non-bid areas from Jan. 1, 2017, to Jan. 1, 2019. Per the legislation, reimbursement for that period would be based on reimbursement on Jan. 1, 2016.“McMorris Rodgers...