When provider David Chase first submitted bids for the competitive bidding program, his team of seven armed themselves with pencils, calculators and coffee, working every night for three weeks to understand their costs and come up with—what he thought—were sensible bids.
The data’s starting to trickle in for this year’s State of the Industry Report (keep an eye out for it online in December!) and at least one of piece of data isn’t looking so bad.
Ever since the interim final rule was published in the Federal Register last week, there has been a cloud of disappointment hanging over the HME industry.
Advocacy efforts are on the rise, as we near the Washington Legislative Conference on May 23-24 and the industry pushes for relief for non‐bid areas, structural reforms to the competitive bidding program, and a critical exemption of CRT accessories from bidding‐derived pricing.
During a round of many calls last week, I spoke with someone who attended Medtrade Spring last month who spoke with someone else in-the-know about Medicare’s competitive bidding program. They discussed the question everyone wants answered: What. Will. Happen. Next?
I recently wrote an article entitled "Court Says No Recoupment Until After ALJ Hearings." This article was about a court decision in which the judge said that recoupment of an extrapolated overpayment as a result of a ZPIC audit could not begin until after ALJ hearings were held.
It’s always disappointing when the HME industry’s efforts to get relief from Medicare’s competitive bidding program fail to cross the finish line. But this last time around, when H.R. 4229 failed to make the cut in a recently passed omnibus bill, it was particularly disappointing.
