Tag: H.R. 4229
Stakeholders fine-tune message in August
August 3, 2018Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
WASHINGTON - As lawmakers head into their August recess, industry stakeholders will keep the focus on a recent proposed rule overhauling Medicare's competitive bidding program.CMS is accepting comments on the proposed rule, which would, among other things, not extend the current bid contracts and temporarily allow any Medicare-enrolled provider to serve beneficiaries, until Sept. 10. “CMS has made some dramatic improvements, but we're lining up some additional refinements and tinkering with...
Idaho providers meet with representative's representative
June 29, 2018HME News Staff
POCATELLO, Idaho - Maag's Prescription and Medical Supply and Big Sky AMES hosted Josh Sorenson, the field director for Rep. Michael Simpson, R-Idaho, recently. Meeting attendees talked about rural access issues in southeast Idaho. Simpson, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, has not signed onto H.R. 4229, which would extend a retroactive delay of a second round of reimbursement cuts and address the oxygen “double dip,”or H.R. 3039, which would stop competitive bidding-related...
What's the score? Industry needs to stay focused
June 1, 2018Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
WASHINGTON - A huge variance in cost estimates for a proposal to expand the competitive bidding process to all areas of the country may be eye-catching, but industry stakeholders remain focused on the big picture.The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the proposal, included in the president's fiscal 2019 budget, would cost $1.3 billion over 10 years; The Department of Health and Human Services says it would save $6.5 billion over the same time period, according to an article in Inside Health...
Post IFR, stakeholders cast wider net for support
May 25, 2018Liz Beaulieu, Editor
WASHINGTON - A major goal of the AAHomecare Washington Legislative Conference last week was determining whether or not Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., will continue to lead the HME industry's bid relief efforts.
With a bill in the House of Representatives, but no bill in the Senate, the big question is: Is Thune satisfied with the relief outlined in the recently released interim final rule, which impacts rural states like the senator's the most, or does he want to continue pushing for more widespread...
Stakeholders: 'We're an industry living in crisis'
May 18, 2018Liz Beaulieu, Editor
WASHINGTON - With the fate and details of the interim final rule no longer a mystery, stakeholders and their champions in Congress are putting their full weight behind H.R. 4229, a bill that would provide more broad-based relief in non-competitive bidding areas.The IFR, published in the Federal Register on May 11, will apply 50/50 blended reimbursement rates, but just in rural and non-contiguous bid areas, and only from June 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2018.“The IFR was holding back H.R....
AAH on bid relief: 'We're not going away'
March 30, 2018Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
LAS VEGAS - After a brief timeout for Medtrade Spring in Las Vegas last week, AAHomecare officials are back at it in Washington, D.C.“We'll be lobbying again on the Hill with our champions,” President and CEO Tom Ryan told attendees at the Washington Update at Medtrade Spring on Wednesday. “We are also getting a meeting on the docket in the next week or so with (Health and Human Services) Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan. We're not going away.”Ryan acknowledged the sting of not...
Industry wants answers
March 23, 2018Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
WASHINGTON - Congress put CMS on notice when it passed an omnibus bill last week that the agency needs to enact a competitive bidding-related interim final rule.The Senate approved the $1.3 trillion omnibus bill late Thursday.“Congress has said to the regulators that it's back in their court,” said Tom Ryan, president and CEO of AAHomecare. “Indications were that the IFR wasn't going to move forward, but CMS has been told if they do not act, maybe Congress will.”The IFR, which...
Stakeholders pitch bid reform
March 16, 2018Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
WASHINGTON - Stakeholders met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other key lawmakers last week to make their case for including language from H.R. 4229 in an omnibus spending bill.
“We met with McConnell and laid out all the issues,” said Tom Ryan, president and CEO of AAHomecare, who attended the meeting—one of several with the Kentucky congressional delegation last week—along with Jason Orr, president of the Kentucky Medical Equipment Suppliers Association,...
In brief: AAH pulls out all the stops; Cigna, Express Scripts plan merger
March 9, 2018HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - With it “increasingly possible” that a competitive bidding-related interim final rule may never be finalized by the Office of Management and Budget, AAHomecare is stepping on the gas on H.R. 4229.“While this realization is a difficult pill to swallow, it also underscores the importance of our legislative efforts,” wrote Tom Ryan, CEO and president of AAHomecare, in the association's weekly bulletin to members on Wednesday.Those legislative efforts got a boost...
Superwoman? It's CMR
March 9, 2018Liz Beaulieu, Editor
During my monthly cartoon meetings with Theresa, I've suggested a few times now, a cartoon wherein Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is depicted as Superwoman (the old-school Superwoman, the one with full sleeves and a red cape).The logo across her chest would read CMR, as AAHomecare and other industry stakeholders have begun calling her (if there's an industry that likes its acronyms, it's HME).
As anyone who knows Theresa knows, Theresa can be a tough crowd and she's always shot my idea down,...