NHIA keeps pressure on CMS
By HME News Staff
Updated Thu September 20, 2018
WASHINGTON - Industry stakeholders met with CMS officials on Sept. 17 to discuss their concerns with home infusion provisions included in a recent proposed rule.
Board members of the National Home Infusion Association and others met with Demitrios Kouzoukas, principal deputy administrator of CMS and director of the Center for Medicare, to highlight the potential negative impact of the provisions on providers and patients, according to a bulletin from NHIA.
In particular, they urged CMS to strike a provision that would require that a nurse be present in the home the day an infusion drug is administered. They also urged the agency to adopt an expanded definition of home infusion professional services.
Kouzokas was familiar with the issues, but he expressed concerns about the budget implications of daily reimbursement, according to the NHIA.
Congressional champions are circulating sign-on letters in the House of Representatives and the Senate that ask CMS to modify the provision to allow payment for each calendar day that home infusion occurs and to adopt a more comprehensive definition of professional services.
The NHIA is asking its members to contact their members of Congress and ask them to sign on to the letters.
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