Home Health & Hospice Week

Next step set for much-feared DME payment system. Your first chance to get a glimpse of the impending competitive bidding payment system for durable medical equipment is coming soon.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has set Oct. 6 as the first meeting date of the Program Advisory and Oversight Committee, which will advise CMS on the bidding process for DME, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies.

CMS invites the public to attend the meeting and submit written comments afterward, it says in an Aug. 27 Federal Register notice. But oral comments and presentations will be off limits.

Exactly what topics the PAOC will address remains unclear - as does the composition of the 12- to 15-member committee. CMS continues to review and process the committee nominations it received after its June solicitation, it says (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIII, No. 21, p. 164).

The notice indicates only that the meeting "will provide a forum for the PAOC to consider issues related to competitive bidding for DMEPOS items and to furnish advice to the Secretary regarding these issues."

The Medicare Modernization Act says the committee will advise CMS on these bidding topics: program implementation, financial standards (taking into account small providers' needs), data collection requirements, "efficient interaction" among manufacturers, service providers, suppliers and individuals, and quality standards and accreditation required to participate in the program.

CMS has set up a new Web site dedicated to the bidding project,
www.cms.hhs.gov/suppliers/dmepos/compbid/, a CMS official said in the Aug. 25 Open Door Forum for home health providers. When the agency finalizes the PAOC membership, it will post the committee list on the site, CMS says in the notice. And CMS will post a summary of the meeting on the site after the event. Interested parties have until Sept. 22 to register for the meeting, and will have until Oct. 13 to submit comments on the proceedings. 

Editor's Note: The Federal Register notice is at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a040827c.html.