Home Health & Hospice Week

Final rule published for mechanism to cut payment rates.

Durable medical equipment suppliers who felt safe from inherent reasonableness cuts over the past few years may now have reason to get nervous again.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has published the final rule on its IR authority in the Dec. 13 Federal Register. The rule remains largely unchanged from the one proposed in December 2002, notes the American Association for Homecare in a message to members.

CMS will use the 15 percent threshold to define a grossly excessive or deficient payment amount for IR cuts, the rule explains.

IR cuts won't apply to providers under prospective payment systems, including home health agencies, the rule specifies.

CMS officials have been promising to put certain DME items, especially power wheelchairs, at the top of the IR list for cuts when the authority was ready to roll. 

Note: The final rule is at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a051213c.html --scroll down to the "Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services" section. For more information on IR, see future issues of Eli's Home Care Week.