Home Health & Hospice Week

The full House Ways & Means Committee has passed legislation calling for Medicare regulatory and appeals reform, but not before battling over an amendment that would suspend collection of OASIS data for non-Medicare, non-Medicaid patients for 18 months. The bill, passed by the House Commerce & Energy Committee March 26, has enjoyed widespread bipartisan support. But the OASIS amendment proposed by House Ways & Means Health Subcommittee Chair Nancy Johnson (R-CT) outraged Democrats, who voted against the measure, reports CongressDaily. They noted that groups such as the AARP oppose suspending the collection and worried that the suspension could mean a loss of useful data. Johnson noted that agencies aren't transmitting the data to the government anyway, according to CongressDaily. The committee voted along party lines April 2 to the pass the amendment and the bill, which includes a host of regulatory changes from shortening appeal response times to moving administrative law judges from the Social Security Administration to the Department of Health and Human Services (see Eli's HCW, Vol., XII, No. 11, Legislation article). Results from Senior Medicare Patrol Projects are really adding up, the HHS Office of Inspector General says in a new report on the program (OEI-02-03-00120). At the end of 2002, there were 54 patrol projects operating. Since the program's inception in 1997, volunteers trained to detect waste, fraud and abuse have educated almost 1.1 million Medicare beneficiaries. Once educated, beneficiaries reported 23,142 complaints and investigative agencies took action on 2,312 referrals. Closed investigations have recouped $3.7 million in Medicare funds and $77.4 million to other payors, the OIG says. Durable medical equipment suppliers can put their two cents in regarding coding and payment for new DME items in a series of public meetings held by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMS says in a March 28 Federal Register notice. Interested parties can make a presentation or submit written comments. The meetings are scheduled for June 24 through 26. More information including how to register will be available at http://cms.hhs.gov/medicare/hcpcs/default.asp a month before the meetings, and a summary of the meetings will be posted there afterward. Air Products has revised downward its earnings expectations for the quarter ended March 31, but it insists its home care business "continues to perform very well." The problem is with its merchant gases, performance polymers and methy-lamines businesses, the Lehigh Valley, PA-based gas and chemical company says. Air Products, which entered the respiratory and home medical equipment markets in October 2002 with the purchase of American Homecare Supply, will report its earnings April 24. Home care mergers and acquisitions rocketed in 2002, M&A advisory firm The Braff Group says in its annual report on the market. HHAs, hospices, [...]