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New Study Shows $1.5 Billion in Cuts to Oxygen Benefit
WASHINGTON--More than $1.5 billion will be slashed off the Medicare home care oxygen benefit by 2010, thanks to the combined effects of legislative and regulatory cuts initiated over the past several years, according to a new study released last week. ...
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Enteral Nutrition Sector Raises Concerns about Patient Care under NCB
ATLANTA--CMS' decision not to include enteral nutrition under the grandfather clause of its final rule governing national competitive bidding--and the absence of a transition period for enteral nutrition recipients--could put patients at risk, according to HME stakeholders...
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CMS Launches Anti-Fraud Demo; Industry Asks, What Took You So Long?
BALTIMORE--HME providers in Los Angeles and Miami will face increased scrutiny under a massive anti-fraud demonstration program announced last week by CMS. The agency said each provider in the two metro areas will have to reapply for Medicare billing privileges and can expect multiple unannounced site visits...
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Walgreens to Buy Option Care for $850 Million
DEERFIELD, Ill.--Walgreen Co. said last week it will acquire specialty pharmacy and home infusion provider Option Care in a transaction valued at $850 million, the largest in Walgreens' history...
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Battle Over Home Sleep Testing Heats Up
BALTIMORE--A battle among sleep industry stakeholders is brewing as CMS works through a review of its national coverage determination on testing for CPAP therapy...
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Actuaries Study Solutions to Medicare Money Woes
WASHINGTON--In a new report, The American Academy of Actuaries has evaluated 16 possible reforms for Medicare's financial problems and concluded that it would take a number of the options to solve them...
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First-Round Bidders Get One-Week Reprieve
BALTIMORE--In a notice sent through its listserv Friday afternoon--just hours before registration was set to close on Saturday--CMS announced it would extend the deadlines for bidder registration and bid submissions by one week in the first round of its DMEPOS competitive bidding program.
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AAHomecare, Washington Groups Press for More Time on NCB
WASHINGTON--In response to CMS' one-week extension of its first-round bid deadlines, AAHomecare announced late Friday that it has joined several other stakeholder groups to go after support in Congress for a longer delay in the implementation of national competitive bidding.
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Medtrade Taps Bird as Show Director
ATLANTA--Nielsen Business Media, producers of Medtrade and Medtrade Spring, announced last week that Kevin Bird will take over operation of the events with his promotion to group show director-health care.
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RATC Poised to Push for Rehab Carve Out
WASHINGTON--In an urgent race against time, the American Association for Homecare's Rehab and Assistive Technology Council is crafting a letter that implores HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt to exclude complex rehab from Medicare's competitive bidding project.
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Web Site Supports Passage of H.R. 2231
ATLANTA--A Web site focused on mustering support for the passage of H.R. 2231, a bill that would exclude complex rehab from competitive bidding, has been created by several stakeholder organizations. ...
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Two More Bidders Calls, Lots More Questions
BALTIMORE--Following a series of calls June 4-8, CMS held two additional teleconferences last week to clarify information for small providers and field questions related to the first round of competitive bidding--and there were a lot of them. ...
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Lawsuit Filed to Foil Competitive Bidding
DALLAS--In a move to halt competitive bidding, a lawsuit filed last week on behalf of three Medicare beneficiaries and three small HME companies asks for a permanent injunction that would stop CMS from ever implementing the program. ...
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