Home Health & Hospice Week

HHA, DME bills see action. Despite the lack of hope that bills proposing home care improvements will achieve passage this year, two such pieces of legislation are gaining support in Congress. As expected, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) and 29 bipartisan cosponsors introduced on July 22 legislation in the House aiming to extend the 5 percent payment add-on for rural home health agencies for two years, to April 2007. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the same legislation in the Senate July 15 (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIII, No. 26). Proponents hope building support for the 5 percent add-on extension will pave the way for passage for the provision next session. And a bill aiming to repeal payment cuts to oxygen, nebulizers, hospital beds, wheelchairs, diabetic supplies, and air mattresses has gained 27 bipartisan cosponsors since its introduction. Reps. David Hobson (R-OH) and Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) introduced H.R. 4491, which would block cuts slated for January 2005, on June 2 (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIII, No. 21).

"While the bill may not see action this year, broad support sends a powerful message about the importance of homecare and builds momentum for a legislative remedy in the 109th Congress," says the American Association for Homecare. The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing to allow oxygen patients to bring AirSep LifeStyle Portable Oxygen Concentrators on airplanes with them, according to a notice in the July 14 Federal Register. Typical compressed oxygen cylinders are considered hazardous materials and aren't allowed on planes without special conditions and restrictions. As a result, most airlines simply ban oxygen. But the AirSep concentrator takes oxygen from ambient air and isn't considered a hazardous material. So far AirSep is the only concentrator evaluated by the FAA, but other devices may be approved as well, the agency expects. More information is in the notice at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a040714c.html. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is clearing up a billing problem resulting from the switch to allow nurse practitioners to act as attending physicians for hospice patients. Carriers had denied NP services billed as the hospice attending, CMS explains in a new Medlearn Matters education article at www.cms.hhs.gov/medlearn/matters/. But now the carriers will go back, reopen and pay those claims if they were billed with a GV modifier. If they were billed without GV modifiers, the NP must bring the incorrectly denied claims to the attention of the carrier to get paid, CMS instructs. Or the NP can just rebill the claim with the modifier. NPs were allowed to act as hospice attendings starting Dec. 8, 2003. Military health benefits program TRICARE is switching over to using the Medicare home health prospective payment system, the National Association for Home Care & [...]