Page 10 - HME Business, October 2018

News / Trends / Analysis
Push for Public Comments on
Proposed ESRD/DMEPOS Rule Pays Off
Notching 514 comments submitted, HME associations, advocates, providers leverage CMS’s proposed rule as golden opportunity to achieve the industry’s policy aims.
Study Shows Cost of
Deliveries to Providers
New data breaks down the true costs of providing HME to homes and institutions.
VGM Government Relations released the results of its survey of the delivery costs incurred by HME providers in order to help industry advocates make their case to lawmakers. The results were broken down by region:
• Far West (AK, CA, HI, NV, OR, WA) — The average delivery cost $127.94 and was 47.90 miles round trip.
• Great Lakes (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI) — The average delivery cost $111.40 and was 47.16 miles round trip.
• Mideast (MD, NJ, NY, PA, RI) — The average delivery cost $92.23 and was 55 miles
round trip.
• New England (CT, DE, MA, ME, VT, NH) — The average delivery cost $67 and was 23.33 miles round trip.
• Southeast (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV) — The average delivery cost $104.38 and was 45.45 miles round trip.
• Plains (IA, KS, MN, MO, ND, NE, SD) — The average delivery cost $106.72 and was 57.57 miles round trip.
• Rocky Mountain (CO, ID, MT, UT, WY) — The average delivery cost $157.57 and was 58.14 miles round trip.
• Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX) — The average delivery cost $105.76 and was 55.33 miles round trip.
Infographics for each region, available at www.vgmdclink.com, break down vehicle costs, labor costs, time of home set-up, and compare the data against average reimbursement rates for oft-provision items oxygen concentrators, standard wheelchairs, hospital beds and CPAP devices.
Approximately 200 providers submitted responses about the real costs incurred when delivering equipment to patients. n
The American Association for Homecare, VGM Government Relations and various industry advocates worked overtime with providers to drive a mass filing of public comments on CMS’s recently proposed ESRD/DMEPOS rule by the Sept. 10 deadline.
At press time the campaign appeared to have paid off with 514 comments that had been submitted.
The rule, released in mid-July includes various competitive bidding changes such as lead item pricing. However, industry advocates quickly identified a number of ways the rules comes
up short, hence the need to submit comments. Those concerns were reason enough to file public comments, there was another important reason to file comments, according to AAHomecare’s Ryan: it helps amplify the industry’s voice on Capitol Hill.
Ryan added that while the rule indicates CMS is realizing that it needs to protect access to HME, there are still sectors in government that believe bidding is the right solution for controlling costs and any fraud or waste and is not causing programs.
Two examples: The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC) released its annual report to Congress in June and recommended expanding
Study: 42% of Women With Asthma Developed COPD Later
Researchers look for the cause behind rising incidence of asthma and COPD overlap syndrome in women.
Forty-two percent of Canadian women with asthma developed COPD as they aged, a condi- tion called asthma and COPD overlap syndrome or ACOS, according to a study from researchers at the University of Toronto published online in The Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
Though previous studies have also shown an increase in ACOS incidents in women, what the
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the bidding program, and an August report to Congress from the Government Accounting Office (GAO) argued that national bidding expansion did not hurt access to HME in rural and non-bid areas (see “GAO: Non-Bid Areas Didn’t See Patient Access Problems in 2016,” on page 10).
“This input from MedPAC and the recent GAO report discounting HME sector claims of patient access issues serves as another reason why we [needed] stakeholders and HME providers to add their voices to the ESRD/DMEPOS Rule comments,” Ryan said, adding that the public comments period offered the industry “a really good opportunity” to ensure those other sectors of government heard the industry’s story.
“The final version of the ESRD/DMEPOS Rule will have a tremendous impact on our industry for years to come, so it’s critical that we make our best case for improving CMS’ reimbursement policy,” Ryan said.
Both VGM Government Relations and AAHomecare provided the industry with a number of resources, such as information documents, templates to help providers tailor their public comments, analysis of the rule, and their own comments as a guide. n
researchers of this study found were possible risk factors that may help understand the disparity in ACOS incidence and mortality between women and men.
The study titled “Asthma and COPD Overlap in Women: Incidence and Risk Factors” collected data for 4,051 women with asthma in Ontario for 14 years from 1992-2015, and the average age at the conclusion of the study was 79. Of the 4,051 women, 1,701 or 42 percent developed COPD.
Researchers were able to identify four main risk factors associated with ACOS incidence: low educa- tion, high body mass index, rurality and heavy ciga- rette smoking. Though 38 percent of the women who developed ACOS had never smoked ciga- rettes, women who had smoked the equivalent
of five packs per day for five more or more years, were more likely to develop ACOS than those who smoked less or not at all.
The study can be found at bit.ly/2CE1jBt. n
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