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)...
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Reimbursement
Competitive Bidding will Eliminate Local Care Options for Beneficiaries
Flawed program will send Sranton disabled average 725 miles for a wheelchair Obtaining home medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers and life-saving oxygen systems is about to get a lot more difficult for Medicare beneficiaries living in northeastern...
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...
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...
Medicare Panel Urges Cuts to Hospital Payments for Services Doctors Offer for Less
A federal advisory panel said Friday that Congress should move immediately to cut payments to hospitals for many services that can be provided at much lower cost in doctors’ offices. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission said the current payment disparities had...
H.R. 2375 Calls for Delay and Review of Competitive Bidding
Reps. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, have introduced a bill to delay the implementation of Round 2 of competitive bidding, according to The VGM Group. H.R. 2375, the “Transparency Accountability in Medicare Bidding Act of 2013,” would delay the...
Hawaii Home Health Faces Negative Medicare Margins
Hawaii is one of 10 states where payments will be below cost, and second biggest "loser" in the nation. Hawaii is facing Medicare Home Healthcare payment at least 11.7% below cost, and up to 27.8% below cost if proposed rebasing takes effect. Even without rebasing,...
North Carolina BCBS Network Alert
The deadline to enter into the new North Carolina Blue Cross Blue Sheild network is June 24th 2013. Earlier this month BCBS of NC announced they would be discontinuing thier current "closed" network and replacing it with an opened network. The opened network will have...
Home Healthcare Thanks Congressman Tom Price for Support of Home Health Service Access
The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare today commended Representative Tom Price (R-GA) and his call for targeted Medicare reforms that achieve savings by putting an end to the occurrence of waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare program. In a letter sent to his...
Humana Adopts Medicare National Mail Order Pricing
When it comes to the steep cuts Medicare plans to implement as part of Round 2 of competitive bidding, industry stakeholders have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. In the wake of the announcement of the cuts—on average, 45% below the current fee schedule—there...