Tag: Round 2 recompete

WASHINGTON - One month after the introduction of a Senate bill to delay competitive bidding cuts, industry stakeholders are still working to get a Democratic co-sponsor for a House companion bill.The sticking point: The bill's “pay-for,” which would speed up plans to limit federal Medicaid reimbursement for DME to the Medicare payment rates from Jan. 1, 2019, to Oct. 1, 2018.“There's a concern that, from a policy standpoint, we don't want a pay-for that affects the senior or disability...

YARMOUTH, Maine - Respondents to a recent HME NewsPoll are split over whether accepting a competitive bidding contract from Medicare is a good idea.Fifty-four percent of respondents said that, in general, they did not accept the majority of the contracts they were offered, while 32% said they accepted a contract the first time around, but not the second.One reason: “(It's) not worth it,” said Jill Duda, business operations manager at Philadelphia-based Flagship Medical, of the decrease...

There's been a lot of chatter over the past two weeks about the new Round 2 re-compete payment amounts. With seemingly a gazillion different HCPCS codes with their corresponding prices (per region), folks have been burning up their calculators to crunch the numbers, I'm sure. Except for one product category: mail-order diabetes, which was delightfully simple to parse, what with it being one national price for each of eight codes. So, my scientific analysis (which consisted of printing off a hard...

WASHINGTON - Reimbursement rates will decrease, on average, 7.1% when the Round 2 re-compete kicks off July 1, according to an analysis from AAHomecare.On average, providers will see a 6.2% reduction in the Midwest; 8% reduction in the Northeast; 5.9% reduction in the south; and an 8.8% reduction in the West as part of the Round 2 re-compete compared to the original Round 2.Of the product categories included in the Round 2 re-compete, support surfaces will see the largest cuts, ranging from 22.7%...

BALTIMORE - Registration for the Round 2 recompete opens Dec. 18, and the bid window opens Jan. 22, 2015, CMS announced yesterday.“Today marks another step forward in ensuring access to quality health care for millions of Medicare beneficiaries, stated CMS Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.The seven product categories included in the Round 2 recompete are: enteral nutrients and equipment; general home equipment; nebulizers; negative pressure wound therapy pumps; respiratory equipment; standard...

BALTIMORE - Keeping everyone on their toes, CMS has a few surprises up its sleeve for the Round 2 recompete of competitive bidding, say industry stakeholders.For starters, competitive bidding areas (CBAs) in the Round 2 recompete won't cross state lines. That means, although the recompete encompasses the same geographic areas as the previous Round 2, there are now 117 CBAs.“CMS said it's because of the licensure issues (we saw last time),” said Kim Brummett, senior director of regulatory...

BALTIMORE - CMS late yesterday announced plans to recompete contracts for Round 2 of competitive bidding and the national mail-order program for diabetes supplies.The agency says it has begun its pre-bidding supplier awareness program, and will announce the bidding schedule and education program this fall. Bidding is set to begin some time in the winter of 2015.The original contracts for Round 2 are set to expire June 30, 2016.CMS plans to include the following product categories in the recompete:•...