Page 8 - HME Business, September 2017

News / Trends / Analysis
Manual CRT Bill Poised to Launch in House
Lawmakers have drafted legislative language that would protect manual CRT accessories from competitive bidding.
Drum Line Heralds
New Day for Invacare
DME manufacturer no longer under the injunction of its FDA consent decree, ending nearly five years of heavily restricted production and sales.
Invacare Corp. has emerged from the injunctive phase of a U.S. Food & Drug Administration consent decree that started more than four years ago.
While the manufacturer will still be subject to regular, third-party audits for the next five years to confirm sustainable compliance, Invacare can freely sell products from its Taylor Street facility. Also the verification of medical necessity require- ment for equipment is over.
The news was made to a gathering of employees on the front lawn of the company’s Elyria, Ohio headquarters at the end of July. The announce- ment, accompanied by a drum line fanfare, elicited an emotional response from Invacare employees.
“It’s been so much hard work; we deserved a little drum line,” remarked Matt Monaghan, Invacare’s chairman, CEO and president,
For employees who weathered the consent decree that began in December 2012, as well as those who, like Monaghan, joined Invacare while the consent decree was in place, the announce- ment was a long time coming.
While the consent decree sharply restricted Invacare’s production and sales — and, for a while, its product development — Monaghan said the manufacturer used the time to also think about how it wanted to operate going forward.
“When I came here in 2015, the company
took the opportunity of the consent decree to think about a different strategy, and I certainly came with a different perspective of what to
do,” Monaghan said in an interview with Mobility Management. “The founder before me did a wonderful thing to bring as many [products] as possible to this industry. But I see this as an inter- esting opportunity, and that was to do more with the technologies we have in our portfolio for the benefit of end-user clients and providers and clini- cians and non-professional caretakers, the family members who do so much.
“We did a few things in parallel,” he continued. “We certainly had a vision for solving the consent decree: Let’s get all the right people dealing with that, and let’s make sure the culture pervades the whole company. It’s not a paperwork exercise, it’s a culture exercise. Then in parallel: We have to get back to being great. That consent decree can’t be an excuse for everything.” n
— Laurie Watanabe, editor of
Mobility Management
As lawmakers return from their district offices to Capitol Hill after their August recess Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and John Larson (D-Conn.) will introduce legislation into the House that would protect manual CRT wheelchair acces- sories from competitive bidding-derived reim- bursement, according to the American Association for Homecare and the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology.
The legislative language for the bill is now available at bit.ly/2vUDRLW.
A previous bill, H.R. 1361, aimed to bar CMS from applying bidding-derived reimbursement rates for both power and manual CRT accessories. However, CMS announced at the end of June that it would no longer apply those pricing schemes to power CRT accessories. It did not include manual CRT accessories in that rule. The new legislation would continue the original legislative effort for the remaining, manual CRT accessories.
“Passage of this new bill is needed to fix the current disparity that prevents people who use a CRT manual wheelchair from having the same
access to CRT accesso- ries as those using a CRT power wheelchair,” said NCART Executive Director Donald Clayback.
While congress was in recess for August, Reps. Zeldin and Larson pursued additional members of the House to support the bill. At press time, 33 additional lawmakers had agreed to co-sponsor the bill when
it is released this month. A list of the Representatives is at bit.ly/2uMsPmY.
Executive Director Donald Clayback said the bill would ensure that manual CRT chair users have access to the same sorts of much-needed accessories that powered CRT users recently gained.
Both NCART and AAHomecare called on providers to reach out to Representatives that have not yet committed to supporting the bill, and urge them to co-sponsor the legislation once it
is released in the House. An issue paper to help them in their lobbying efforts is available at bit.ly/2vVjRbe. n
Medicare Accounts for 16% of HME Spending
Report shows that Medicare’s and Medicaid’s importance as funding sources is shrinking, while private payer and retail dominate revenues.
Medicare reimbursement
pays for just 16 percent of all spending on home medical equipment, according to June 2017 Data Book: Health Care Spending and the Medicare Program, a new report from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC)
The report also shows that DME’s portion of Medicare expenditures is shrinking. In 2005, DME comprised 2 percent of Medicare spending, but in 2015, it only accounted for 1 percent of Medicare outlays.
Another data point shows just how greatly Medicare’s importance as a revenue driver for HME has dropped. In addition to Medicare’s
16 percent share, Medicaid accounted for
15 percent of HME spending, and all other sources, such as private payer and retail sales, represented 68 percent of HME spending.
The 214-page report covers a broad array of data that is supplied to Congress for health policy-making, and can be found at http://bit.ly/2v5jyKm. n
8 HMEBusiness | September 2017 | hme-business.com
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