New Home Health Coalition to Monitor DMERCs' Actions

Apr 1, 2001 12:00 PM, J.P. Pieratt

Washington -- Home health suppliers looking for an entity to keep the Health Care Financing Administration's durable medical equipment regional carriers from instituting burdensome requirements can look to a new coalition to lead the fight.

Tentatively called the Coalition to Ensure Fair DMERC Claims Processing, the coalition has two primary goals: to ensure that DMERC requirements on suppliers are rational as they relate to different processes and to address issues specifically related to pre- and post-payment audits, according to Cara Bachenheimer, an attorney with Washington-based law firm Epstein Becker & Green, which is a coalition founding member. Other initial members include several home health associations and suppliers.

"We've identified a bunch of very specific issues we need to address, and everyone we've talked to says we're absolutely as on target as motherhood and apple pie," Bachenheimer said. "These are requirements the DMERCs just impose with no effective oversight from HCFA. No one is telling the DMERCs that they can't do these things, and the suppliers just get more and more harmed."

Some DMERC requirements made the coalition's black list at its first meeting in December, including those concerning proof of product delivery, beneficiary contact and the DMERCs' overpayment recovery units.

For more information on the coalition, contact Bachenheimer at 202/861-0900.