Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
THE LOSERS: DME INDUSTRY HEADED FOR A MELTDOWN
Compromise over Medicare legislation harsh on suppliers. The bill could put the majority of the durable medical equipment industry out of business, critics say. "The bill will be devastating to the homecare industry," says the American Association for Homecare. And it "will jeopardize access to quality care for millions of homecare patients." "It's going to be a disaster," says Joan Cross, president of the Florida Association of Medical Equipment Services. "They're going to be systematically wiping us out." Provisions affecting suppliers include:
"We aren't too thrilled about the package," says Erik Sokol with the Power Mobility Coalition. The bill will pile on a number of reimbursement-reducing measures for power mobility products: the inflation freeze, the unspecified cuts to FEHBP levels, and eventually bidding. Plus the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is sharpening its knives to make cuts using its inherent reasonableness authority. CMS Administrator Tom Scully repeatedly has vowed power wheelchairs will be first on the IR review list. "Overall, it's a big loss," Sokol says. One of the problems with reducing payment rates to FEHBP levels is that the program generally services a healthy, younger population in comparison with the Medicare population, AAH notes. And the program may not have the intensive documentation and regulatory requirements that increase overhead for serving Medicare patients. But the impact of those reductions will pale in comparison to the devastation a national competitive bidding program will bring, experts say. "People are just panicked," Cross tells MLR.
All suppliers' worst nightmares have been wrapped up in one neat package: the newly passed Medicare reform bill.
Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
- Medicare Reform:
CONGRESS PASSES MAJOR MEDICARE REFORM BILL
Revamp features Rx benefit, increased managed care presence and much, much more funding.
Congress Nov. 25 [...] - Health Plans:
THE WINNERS: HEALTH PLANS POISED TO RE-ENTER MEDICARE
Health plans are the clear victors in the new landmark legislation.
Health plans won a major [...] - Reimbursement:
THE WINNERS: MONEY THROWN AT HOSPITALS, DOCS, EMPLOYERS
Increased reimbursement will help hospital and physicians.
One of the stories in the Medicare end-game [...] - DME:
THE LOSERS: DME INDUSTRY HEADED FOR A MELTDOWN
Compromise over Medicare legislation harsh on suppliers.
All suppliers' worst nightmares have been wrapped up in [...] - Home Health:
THE LOSERS: HHAs HURTING DESPITE COPAY VICTORY
Rural add-on falls short of hopes.
Home health agencies may have celebrated their political good fortune [...] - Rx Drugs:
THE DETAILS: THE DETAILS:
The in's and out's of the complicated new addition to Medicare. With so much discussion [...] - Pharmaceuticals:
MEDICARE BILL RETAINS REIMPORATION RESTRICTIONS
The movement to import less-expensive, Food and Drug Administration-approved medications from Canada has gone way [...] - BILL WATCH
Bills introduced in the House: HR 3535. A bill to amend title XVIII of the [...]
