Home Health & Hospice Week

Despite some changes, major flaws remain,industry reps charge. Suppliers hoping for a significantly restructured competitive bidding program from Medicare were sorely disappointed with a new rule that will take effect next month. In the Jan. 16 Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a new interim final rule on competitive bidding for durable medical equipment. CMS will take comments on the final rule for 60 days, but the rule actually goes into effect Feb. 15. Timeline: CMS plans for round one to occur in 2009, mail order bidding "after 2010," round two in 2011, and subsequent rounds in later years. The rule does set out some differences from the 2008 program that was delayed by Congress in the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA). It excludes negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) and Group 3 complex rehabilitative wheelchairs, CMS notes on its bidding Web [...]