NHIA to Boehner: Don't use ASP for home infusion drugs
By HME News Staff
Updated Tue June 16, 2015
WASHINGTON - The National Home Infusion Association has asked House Speaker John Boehner to drop a provision in H.R. 2570 that would change the payment structure for infusion drugs under the Part B DME benefit to an average sales price methodology. The provision is a “pay-for” in “The VBID for Better Care Act of 2015.” “The payment change for these drugs as set out in H.R. 2570 will make it very difficult, if not impossible, for home infusion providers to provide these drugs and the necessary services to Medicare beneficiaries,” the NHIA stated in a June 15 letter. “Beneficiaries without access to home infusion would most likely need to receive their care in more expensive institutional settings.” Instead, the NHIA asks that Congress pass its “Medicare Home Infusion Site of Care Act,” a bill that would require Medicare to pay for home infusion services and related supplies under Medicare Part B. H.R. 2570 also includes a provision prohibiting Part B DMEPOS drugs from being included in the competitive bidding program. “NHIA does support the prohibition,” the association stated in the letter. “However, it must be noted that while this provision may prevent the drug reimbursement under DMEPOS from being driven even lower, the issue of a service payment for home infusion professional services remains paramount to the industry and the industry cannot support an ASP pricing methodology without home infusion services being reflected.”
Comments