Mandate other changes
--Exclude negative pressure wound therapy from round one and require CMS to evaluate how these items are coded and paid.
--Exclude Puerto Rico from round one re-bidding (the CBA did not receive enough valid bids in original round one for CMS to award contracts).
--Allow physicians and other treating practitioners to supply “off-the-shelf orthotics” to their patients without being awarded a competitive bidding contract.
--Allow hospitals in bidding areas to supply the same DMEPOS items that physicians and other practitioners will be able to supply (those that are considered an integral part of professional services) without being awarded contracts for those items.
--Ensure that podiatrists and other similar practitioners can prescribe DMEPOS items by using a broader definition of “physician” in the Social Security Act. (This relates to a drafting error in the Medicare Modernization Act--which mandated competitive bidding--that pointed to the wrong definition of “physician” in the Social Security Act when requiring face-to-face examination in order to prescribe DMEPOS items.)
--Delay a mandated Government Accountability Office report to coincide with the delay of round one and expand the scope of report.
--Provide CMS implementation funding of $120 million.

In addition, the measure would repeal the transfer of oxygen equipment to beneficiaries required by the Deficit Reduction Act. The title transfer is currently set to take effect Jan. 1, 2009.

For the entire text of H.R. 6331, visit http://thomas.loc.gov and enter "H.R. 6331" in the search bar.