From: HME News
YARMOUTH, Maine – Another competitive bidding-related milestone came and went early this year, and it had varying impact on home medical equipment providers in Round 1 areas, but none of them were pleasant.
When competitive bidding went into effect in January 2011, non-contract providers had the option of grandfathering their existing patients for certain home medical equipment for a certain period of time. January of 2012, however, meant the end of many of those arrangements.
From: Home Care Magazine
Coalition gets critical items excluded from Competitive Bidding Program
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The first of these challenges was Medicare’s decision in 2007 to competitively bid complex power wheelchairs. The industry met this challenge and overcame it when Congress passed legislation in July of 2008 specifically excluding complex power wheelchairs from competitive bidding.
From: Home Care Magazine
Officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday, March 14, will brief staff of members of the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees on the Competitive Bidding Program, according to the American Association for Homecare.
That is the same day CMS is scheduled to brief Senate staff members. That briefing is set for 2 p.m. in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room SD-430. The time and place for the House briefing had not been announced late last week.
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Karen Miner, an advocate for people living with disabilities, is concerned that many Medicare beneficiaries in California may lose access to power mobility devices that allow them to remain independent in their homes rather than confined to nursing homes and care facilities. Across the country in Pittsburgh, PA, Georgie Blackburn, a home medical equipment provider, fears that Medicare regulations, as well as some new ones poised to be enacted, will decimate the provider community. Soon, she says, because of government policies, there may not be enough providers still standing to answer the mobility needs of senior citizens and people living with disabilities.