Industry Notes:
IRS TAKES MILEAGE RATE DOWN A NOTCH
Published on Tue Nov 08, 2005
Lower gas prices lead to lower reimbursement level in 2006.
Now that record-setting gas prices have receded, so will the Internal Revenue Service's mileage rate.
Back in September, the IRS raised its rate an unprecedented 20 percent to 48.5 cents per mile (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIV, No. 33). But now it has set a new rate of 44.5 cents to take effect Jan. 1.
"The IRS made a special one-time adjustment for the last four months of 2005... in response to a sharp increase in gas prices, which topped $3 a gallon," the agency notes in a release. "The 2006 mileage rates reflect that gas prices have dropped," IRS Commissioner Mark Everson says in the statement.
The change may be good news for home health agencies struggling to reimburse employees at the IRS rate, but bad news for employees who received the extra funds. Many agencies weren't able to raise pay levels to the new rate anyway--and may not reach this payment level either, observers note. • If you make a billing mistake because you relied on bogus advice from your Medicare contractor, at least you may not have to pay any interest on the overpayment, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Transmittal 739, dated Nov. 1. The transmittal implements a Medicare Moderniza-tion Act provision to waive penalties when you follow "erroneous guidance." • The CMS Administrator has reversed the Provider Reimbursement Review Board decision that favored Potomac Home Health Care in Rockville, MD (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIV, No. 41), reports Potomac's attorney, Joel Hamme with Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville in Washington, DC. Potomac will join forces with another agency facing a reversal over per-visit therapist pay, Erwine's Home Health Care Inc. in Kingston, PA, to file an appeal in federal court.
The Administrator's conduct in these cases is "both shameful and cynical," Hamme says in a release. "It is designed simply to avoid making Medicare reimbursement payments that the government itself has effectively conceded--and that the courts have unanimously concluded--must lawfully be paid." The HHAs are seeking other agencies with similar pending appeals to join their suit, Hamme reports. • The U.S. Department of Justice is dropping its antitrust probe into Vermont's home health industry, but that doesn't mean there aren't changes in store for the state's HHAs.
The DOJ is closing its investigation because the Certificate of Need (CON) state passed the Home Health Act of 2005, which will create more competition, the agency says in a release.
The Justice Department urges state officials to "critically evaluate the agencies' arguments for maintaining the status quo and keeping out competition." The state can use the provisions in the act to allow more competitors to become certified, according to the DOJ.
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