Federal health plan's costs aren't the same as Medicare's. Durable medical equipment suppliers are getting some lawmakers in their corner. Rep. Dave Hobson (R-OH), along with Democratic co-sponsor Harold E. Ford, Jr. (TN), have introduced a bill calling for the repeal of the DME payment rate cuts down to Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan levels. Last December's Medicare Modernization Act called for cuts to FEHBPpayment rate levels by 2005. Some of the cuts may be as high as 22 percent, the American Association for Homecare has estimated. The FEHBP payment rates referenced in MMA, which would affect oxygen and oxygen equipment, wheelchairs, nebulizers, diabetes lancets and test strips, hospital beds and air mattresses, were contained in an HHS Office of Inspector General study that is very small in scope. And the costs and beneficiary population for FEHBPversus Medicare are very different. Thus, paring Medicare prices down to FEHBPlevels is unfair, critics say. Bill proponents hope the legislation will gain cosponsors, showing congressional support for repealing the DME cuts. Then, the provision could be included at the end of the congressional session in a possible wrap-up bill containing many Medicare changes. Observers expect the specific FEHBP cuts to be announced this summer.
Aregistered dietitian can't be the sole provider of DSMTservice, CMS also says. The two L codes replaced codes K0557 and K0558 and were inadvertently left off the list allowing separate payment, CMS explains. The codes will be added Oct. 1, but suppliers will receive rejections for the items until then for patients under a Part ASNF stay. Omnicare has a history of hostile takeovers, and NeighborCare could be next on its list, reports The Daily Deal. The Baton Rouge, LA-based home health chain has acquired a Vicksburg, MS-based HHAfrom River Region Health System for undisclosed terms, the company says. Mississippi is a certificate-of-need state, which will limit competition to the acquisition, Amedisys says in a release. Nursefinders will add new locations in Austin, Corpus Christi and Tyler, TX as a result of the contract, which will last throughout the three-year DM pilot. "Nursefinders'participation in this program will put our company and clinicians at the leading edge of disease state management and outcomes based care," Nursefinders chief nursing officer Pamela Wendt says in a release. Marietta, GA-based Matria said it was having sagging profits (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIII, No. 16). The Roanoke office is engaged in diabetes supplies sales, the paper says.
"One of the key goals of the President's Electronic Government Initiative is to make it easier for citizens and providers to get services from their government," CMS Administrator Mark McClellan says in a release announcing the new listerv.
CMS accidentally left two new codes -- L5673 (Addition to lower extremity, below knee/above knee, custom fabricated from existing mold or prefabricated, socket insert, silicone gel, elastomeric or equal, for use with locking mechanism, effective January 1, 2004) and L5679 (Addition to lower extremity ... not for use with locking mechanism, effective January 1, 2004) off the list of codes that can be paid separately from SNF bundling, the agency explains in May 29 Transmittal No. 191.
"Since these codes were mistakenly not added to the edits for services that are separately payable outside of consolidated billing and the PPS rate, the provider or supplier should not contact the SNF for payment of these claims," CMS instructs. Instead, suppliers should bring incorrectly rejected claims to the attention of the DME regional carrier or fiscal intermediary, which will then "re-open and re-process claims using the CWF override code," CMS says in the transmittal.
"We are excited to further expand our presence in the Mississippi market through this acquisition," says Amedisys CEO William F. Borne. The acquisition, which has a CON covering eight counties, should generate $2 million in annual revenues, the company says.