Tag: Comment
VGM objects to bid program including vents, orthoses
December 11, 2018HME News Staff
WATERLOO, Iowa - With the complex care required for vent patients and with few suppliers serving the market, it's best to keep the product category out of Medicare's competitive bidding program, VGM says. In recently submitted comments to CMS, the company pointed out that: Vent patients are highly vulnerable and require care from highly skilled RTs, and can't be subject to delays in care or access issues. It also pointed out that the market for vents is small and niche, with fewer than...
VGM provides talking points on vent proposal
November 20, 2018HME News Staff
WATERLOO, Iowa - The VGM Group has pulled together suggested talking points for providers who plan to comment on CMS's proposal to include vents in its next round of competitive bidding.
“There are major concerns with life-sustaining equipment such as ventilators being restricted to contracted suppliers given the instability that the program has caused within the DMEPOS industry,” VGM stated in a bulletin.
CMS has proposed adding the following codes to the program: E0465 (invasive),...
Stakeholders now await final rule
September 13, 2018HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - A CMS proposed rule that, among other things, outlined changes to the competitive bidding program drew 514 comments by a Sept. 10 deadline.
“This is an incredible leap from last week, when we reported 216 submissions,” VGM stated in a bulletin. “These comments are crucial to demonstrating the need for additional relief for the non-rural areas among the other areas where CMS fell short in their proposals.”
The comments, which are public, can be read here.
In...
AAH responds to recent proposed rule
August 21, 2018HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - AAHomecare argues that CMS should pay HME providers in competitive bidding areas a higher rate during an upcoming “gap period” in the program, according to comments submitted by the association this week in response to a recent proposed rule.
AAHomecare recommends that CMS establish rates in the former CBAs at the current SPA rates but provide an increase to those rates by all the CPI-U increases from 2013 through 2018.
“AAHomecare has serious concerns about the...
IFR comments pass 100 mark
July 3, 2018HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - A competitive bidding-related interim final rule had 136 comments on Monday, July 9, the deadline.
Stakeholders have been pushing for comments on the IFR, which reinstates 50/50 blended reimbursement rates—but only from June 1, 2018, to Dec. 31, 2018, instead of retroactively from Jan. 1, 2017; and only in rural and non-contiguous areas instead of all non-bid areas.
The deadline or submitting comments is July 9.
Submit your comments here.
Bundling: the non-surprise surprise?
February 28, 2014Liz Beaulieu, Editor
I was as surprised as the next person to see this week's advance notice of proposed rule making from CMS detailing its plans to not only spread bid pricing to non-bid areas (I guess we knew that one was coming), but also possibly change the game entirely by bundling payments for certain HME like CPAP devices.
That's “bigger than competitive bidding itself,” one provider told me.
CMS says about the move: “We believe it may be appropriate to modify the Medicare payment...