Home Health & Hospice Week

Suppliers give Congress an earful at hearing about the program. Suppliers may not be getting all they hoped from the directive from the Obama administration to hold all eleventh-hour Bush administration regs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed a delay to the interim final rule reestablishing the durable medical equipment competitive bidding program. In a Jan. 16 Federal Register notice, CMS had set the implementation date for Feb. 17 (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVIII, No. 4, p. 29). Now CMS says it is contemplating a delay "in accordance with the White House Chief of Staff's memorandum of January 20, 2009, entitled 'Regulatory Review.'" In that memo, Rahm Emanuel gave the customary order to halt regulations pending review from the new administration (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVIII, No. 5, p. 40). But that delay would only be for 60 days,CMS says. Too short: That wouldn't be nearly enough [...]