Associations land champion for audit bill
By HME News Staff
Updated Wed May 7, 2014
WASHINGTON - Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., plans to sponsor legislation to fix Medicare's broken audit system, AAHomecare and the North Carolina Association for Medical Equipment Services (NCAMES) announced today.
“Congresswoman Ellmers has recognized an intensifying problem in the homecare industry,” stated Robert Steedley, president of Barnes Healthcare Services and chairman of AAHomecare's board of directors, in a release. “We look forward to working with her to move this legislation forward.”
The announcement came on the first day of AAHomecare's Washington Legislative Conference, May 7-8 in Washington, D.C.
While AAHomecare has yet to detail the legislation, officials at Medtrade Spring in March said it would pull from a list of recommendations to the administration and CMS. Those recommendations include conducting independent reviews of contractors, implementing interest penalties when claims are overturned, limiting the number of audits a provider can receive during a given period, and reinstating “clinical inference.”
“AAHomecare has been raising the alarm and we have worked for a number of years on policy solutions to address this emerging issue,” stated Tom Ryan, president and CEO of AAHomecare, in the release.
Once the bill is introduced, AAHomecare urges members of Congress to support the legislation.
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