Long-term care providers will need to draw up a strictly formatted contract with their hospice care partners, according to a final rule released Thursday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The regulation clarifies the details of each contract and is...
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Government
Senate Finance Committe Warns of Audits Hurting DME Providers with Red Tape
In a Senate Finance Committee hearing this past Tuesday, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) called on Congress and the administration to strengthen a key Medicare program that saves taxpayers millions of dollars each year by rooting out improper payments to health care...
CMS Announces Additional Time to Establish Face-to-Face Protocols for DME
CMS has advised Congress of the following change to the Face-to-face rule set to go into effect on July 1st Due to concerns that some providers and suppliers may need additional time to establish operational protocols necessary to comply with face-to-face encounter...
Lawmakers call on OIG to investigate competitive bidding
In a June 21 letter to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Reps. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, call on the agency to investigate the possibility that CMS deliberately overlooked its own rules when awarding contracts for competitive bidding,...
Reality Check: Competitive Bidding Program Myths Versus Facts
The Medicare DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program Myths Versus Facts Reality Check Recently CMS released a document titled "The Medicare DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Programs: Myths vs. Facts". This document outlined what CMS described as "Myths" of the...
U.S. District Court in Washington will hear AAHomecare request for immediate delay
U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has scheduled a hearing for Thursday, June 27 to consider a request for a temporary restraining order against the scheduled July 1 expansion of the Medicare competitive bidding program (CBP) for durable medical equipment (DME)...
Medicare Faulted for not Tracking Suspicious Prescribers
More than 700 doctors nationwide wrote prescriptions for elderly and disabled patients in highly questionable and potentially harmful ways, according to a critical report of Medicare's drug program released yesterday. The review by the inspector general of the U.S....
Medicare Coverage of Obesity Treatments on Horizon while Reimbursement for Sleep Therapy Shrinks
Just as Medicare and CMS are cutting reimbursement as much as 75% on Durable Medical Equipment Services and Products U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy filed legislation to make some weight-loss prescription drugs and treatments available to residents through the federal Medicare...
AAHomecare and DME Provider File Suit Against CMS Official Over Competitive Bidding
The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare), along with a home medical equipment provider from Maryland, announced today the filing of a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., asking that the scheduled July 1 expansion of the Medicare competitive...
CMS Disqualifies some Contract Suppliers in Tennessee
CMS has disqualified about one-third of the contract suppliers that planned to serve Medicare beneficiaries in Tennessee as part of competitive bidding because they don’t meet state licensure requirements, according to the Tennessean. CMS Administrator Marilyn...
Choice of Health Plans to Vary Sharply From State to State
When a typical 40-year-old uninsured woman in Maine goes to the new state exchange to buy health insurance this fall, she may have just two companies to choose from: the one that already sells most individual policies in the state, and a complete unknown nonprofit...
PAMS Response to Washington Post Editorial on Competitive Bidding
The Washington Post ran an editorial in the paper’s Sunday edition on June 16th encouraging CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner to implement the Round 2 program. The Article can be viewed at www.washingtonpost.com. PAMS Executive Director, John Shirvinsky, posted the...