Home Health & Hospice Week

Your cash should flow freer come October.

Requests for Anticipated Payment (RAPs) won't be caught up in the fiscal year-end payment hold mandated by the Deficit Reduction Act.

The Homecare and Hospice Financial Management Association, an affiliate of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, successfully challenged the inclusion of RAPs in the payment hold that will take place Sept. 22 to 30, NAHC reports.

"While seemingly innocuous, the DRA provisions actually shift billions of dollars of FY 2006 expenditures to FY 2007 and affect all Medicare Part A and Part B payments," NAHC criticizes.

In an earlier transmittal, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said the postponement would apply to RAPs (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XV, No. 8). But now CMS will issue a revision to the transmittal, the trade group adds. • Orthotic and prosthetic suppliers have a unified voice, thanks to the formation of a new trade group alliance. The new coalition brings together the American Board for Certification in Orthotics and Prosthetics, the American Academy of Orthotists & Prosthetists, the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Orthotics and Prosthetics.

The groups will maintain their separate structures. They plan to work together for the purpose of working on federal and state government affairs, according to a statement released in March by the new partnership, the Orthotic & Prosthetic Alliance. • House lawmakers broke for a two-week Easter recess without voting on a fiscal year 2007 budget resolution. Disagreements between conservative and moderate Republicans over items including Medicare and Medicaid cuts stalled the legislation after it was passed without Medicare cuts by the House Budget Committee.

Whether the House will take up the budget resolution when it returns from recess is unclear. President Bush says he will veto any budget legislation that does not include cuts his Administration recommended earlier this year, including reductions to home health agency and hospice payment rates (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XV, No. 6).

• CMS plans a series of special meetings starting this month to discuss coding changes for DME and accessories. On the table: payment and coding determinations related to DME, orthotics and prosthetics and related supplies.

The first event focuses on DME and is scheduled for April 25 in Baltimore. A two-day meeting specific to HCPCS for orthotics and prosthetics will be April 26 to April 27.

A HCPCS meeting on supplies and other related items will be May 4 to May 5. More information is at www.cms.hhs.gov/medhcpcsgeninfo. • Are home health advance beneficiary notices (ABNs) more trouble than they're worth? HHAs that want a chance to comment on the ABN burden can refer to the March 24 Federal Register at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a060324c.html for instructions on how to [...]