Home Health & Hospice Week

Feds should go back to the drawing board instead, industry reps insist. Just days after proposing a short delay to the re-implementation of competitive bidding for durable medical equipment, CMS has adopted the postponement. "The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has delayed the effective date for the Interim Final Rule with Comment Period that implements ... the Round 1 Rebid of the Medicare Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics and Supplies (DMEPOS) Competitive Acquisition Program," CMS says on its bidding Web site. "The effective date was originally February 17, 2009 and is now April 18, 2009," CMS adds. The delay will allow "Department officials the opportunity for further review of the issues of law and policy raised by the rule," CMS continues. The move is due to the Obama administration's directive to hold all unimplemented regulations for review (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVIII, No. 7, p. 52). DME suppliers remain [...]