Page 11 - HME Business, February 2018

Azar Discusses HME
With Senate Finance
Sen. Thune queries HHS Secretary nominee on the CURES Act and the Interim Final Rule regarding rural and non-bid area reimbursement.
Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Alex M. Azar II spoke to the Senate Finance Committee regarding two DME-related issues during his con rmation hearing in mid January.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) queried Azar on two HME industry-related issues:
• The CURES Act requirement for HHS to study
the impact of competitive bidding on the total population of HME providers and patient access to HME over the course of 2016.
• The Interim Final Rule (IFR) on bid expan- sion that has been sitting at the Of ce of Management and Budget
since August. The IFR
had submitted questions to Senate Finance for committee members to ask Azar.
Azar would ll the spot left open by the previous HHS Secretary, Tom Price, who resigned from
the post after it was revealed he routinely used
expensive charter ights for government travel. Azar served as the General Counsel for HHS
prior to becoming Deputy Secretary, and he is also the former president of the U.S. division of phar- maceuticals giant Eli Lilly and Company. n
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would resume the 50/50, blended fee schedule for rural and non-bid areas that was in effect during the phase-in of national bid expansion during Jan. 1, 2016 to June 30, 2016, and apply it to claims submitted between Aug. 1, 2017 to Dec. 31, 2018. It would also exclude home infusion drugs
used with HME from competitive bidding.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) responded
to industry input and queried HHS Secretary nominee Alex M. Azar II regarding two key DMEPOS issues.
“HHS was supposed to have issued a report to Congress — and this came per the 21st Century CURES Act — on bene ciary access by Jan. 12, 2017,” Thune noted. “I’m not aware of this report having been completed, so I’d request that once con rmed you would work to have that report completed quickly.
“Additionally, if con rmed, I would ask will you commit to working with the of ce of management and budget to quickly approve the interim nal rule to provide relief for rural providers that has been pending — the rule that is — since October 2017,” he asked.
Azar’s answer was positive, which should give HME industry advocates some room for optimism, but his extremely concise response also didn’t shed much light on his perspective.
“Yes, Senator, I’d be happy to work on those issues,” Azar replied.
The American Association for Homecare had noted in an earlier membership update that it
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