Industry Notes:
HOUSE TACKLES BUDGET RESOLUTION
Published on Mon Mar 27, 2006
Medicare cuts still up in the air.
Home care providers may soon get an idea of what House members have in mind for them next year.
The House Budget Committee March 29 passed its fiscal year 2007 budget resolution, which is the blueprint for later binding budget legislation. As the industry hoped, the committee followed the Senate's lead and didn't include any Medicare or Medicaid cuts in its resolution (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XV, No. 11).
But a battle between conservative and moderate Republicans may end up with the full House approving Medicare cuts in the final resolution legislation.
It could be a while before home care providers find out for sure what's in store. In this election year, lawmakers may finish up their 2007 budget legislation before the session ends in October. Or they may come back to vote on final budget legislation in a lame duck session after elections, observers predict. • Durable medical equipment suppliers are bracing themselves for a big hit from Medicare starting this month.
Beginning April 1, DME suppliers with Medicare claims have to bill non-invasive positive pressure ventilators as capped rental items. For large suppliers, the annual impact of the reimbursement change could be a revenue drain measuring in the millions, according to American Homepatient Inc., a supplier based in Brentwood, TN.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is allowing a transition period for devices that beneficiaries are currently renting, so that rental months paid prior to April 1 will not count toward the 13-month rental cap (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XV, No. 5). • Public Citizen has filed suit against the Deficit Reduction Act in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the consumer advocacy group says in a release. Like an earlier suit filed by Alabama attorney Jim Zeigler, the suit says the DRA is invalid because the House and Senate passed different versions of the law (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XV, No. 9).
"The entire law is invalid because the law the House passed is different from the law the Senate passed and the President signed," Public Citizen attorney Adina Rosenbaum says in the release. The discrepancy regards a clerical error over the capped rental period for home medical equipment. • If you have patients that stay in different places throughout the episode, you should use the wage index applicable on the last date of service, regional home health intermediary Palmetto GBA says in a recent set of questions and answers on its Web site. That applies to a hospice patient who stays with different family members in different CBSAs throughout the month, Palmetto advises. • Just when you've gotten used to CMS' Medlearn Matters provider education articles, it's time to learn a new [...]
