Tag: ITEM Coalition
Patient advocacy groups press leadership on reimbursement relief
December 4, 2024HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – More than 30 leading patient advocacy organizations have weighed in with congressional leadership to support including provisions from H.R. 5555 and S. 1294 in any legislative package that moves before the end of the year, AAHomecare reports.
In a Dec. 2 letter from the ITEM Coalition, the groups assert that the expiration of 75/25 blended Medicare reimbursement rates on Jan. 1, 2024, has resulted in a “crushing blow to DMEPOS suppliers and providers, threatening...
Representatives urge CMS to cover standing systems
October 10, 2024HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., have sent a letter signed by 22 representatives to CMS urging the agency to open a national coverage analysis for standing systems in power wheelchairs, the ITEM Coalition announced on Oct. 8. The ITEM Coalition made the request for reconsideration of the national coverage determination for mobility assistive equipment to include coverage of standing systems more than four years ago. “The ITEM Coalition remains...
Letter for standing systems extended
October 1, 2024HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – The deadline to collect so-signers for a Dear Colleague letter that asks CMS to move forward with a pending national coverage analysis for power standing systems has been extended to Friday, Oct. 4. The letter, spearheaded by Reps Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., had an original deadline of Sept. 30. “The absence of Medicare coverage for these systems leaves many beneficiaries without access to critical technology that can significantly improve their...
In brief: CMS to end CHOPD, Lincare CEO to lead CQRC
June 19, 2024HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – CMS has announced that payments under the Accelerated and Advance Payment (AAP) Program for the Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption (CHOPD) will conclude on July 12, 2024.
Launched in early March, the CHOPD payments were designed to ease cash flow disruptions experienced by some Medicare providers and suppliers, such as hospitals, physicians and pharmacists, due to the unprecedented cyberattack that took health care electronic data interchange Change Healthcare...
ITEM Coalition presses for Medicare coverage of standing coverage
June 18, 2024HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – The ITEM Coalition has reaffirmed its request for CMS to open a National Coverage Analysis (“NCA”) for Medicare coverage of standing systems in power wheelchairs. The ITEM Coalition submitted its original national coverage determination request for coverage of both seat elevation and standing systems in 2020. CMS bifurcated the original NCD request and granted coverage of power seat elevation in May 2023. “While the ITEM Coalition applauds CMS’s...
Stakeholders make progress on power standing, repair
October 13, 2023Liz Beaulieu, Editor
WASHINGTON – Complex rehab technology stakeholders participated in a call with CMS on Sept. 26 to provide the agency with additional information to support Medicare coverage for power standing systems.
The meeting was led by the ITEM Coalition and attended by Wayne Grau, executive director of NCART, and Cara Masselink, executive director of the Clinician Task Force, as well as physicians, clinicians, manufacturers and consumers.
“I would love to tell you, ‘It’s...
Seat elevation: Stakeholders applaud CMS’s proposal
February 24, 2023Liz Beaulieu, Editor
WASHINGTON – It’s a “pretty big milestone” for CMS to agree, in a recent proposed national coverage determination, that power seat elevation systems are “medical in nature,” says the ITEM Coalition’s Peter W. Thomas.
CMS published the proposed NCD on Feb. 15, saying it planned to, for the first time, expand coverage for seat elevation on Group 3 wheelchairs for beneficiaries who perform weight-bearing transfers to/from their wheelchair in the...
‘We’re looking closely at Group 2’
February 24, 2023Liz Beaulieu, Editor
WASHINGTON – There was one surprise in CMS’s proposed national coverage decision for power seat elevation systems: a request for specific comments on whether having the systems on Group 2 power wheelchairs serves a medical purpose.
When the ITEM Coalition made its request to reconsider the NCD to expand coverage for seat elevation, it specified Group 3 wheelchairs.
“The reasoning was, we needed to get a foothold in the DME benefit and we didn’t feel like...
CMS opens NCD for seat elevation
August 16, 2022HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – CMS has opened the National Coverage Determination for seat elevation systems used with power wheelchairs, but the agency is not reconsidering coverage for power standing systems at this time.
CMS said in May it would commit to re-opening the NCD, nearly two years after the ITEM Coalition submitted a formal request to reconsider the NCD for mobility assistive equipment to include coverage for these systems.
“Now is the time for Medicare – the...
Stakeholders on power seat elevation: ‘We’re hoping to hear concrete steps’
December 22, 2021Liz Beaulieu, Editor
WASHINGTON – Complex rehab stakeholders were scheduled to meet with CMS officials right before the holidays to check on their request to reconsider coverage for power seat elevation and power standing systems.
The meeting was scheduled to take place on Dec. 22 with Dr. Meena Seshamani, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare, and others.
“We’re hoping to hear from them about specific, concrete steps that the agency is taking and, hopefully,...