NEW YORK (August 17, 2017)—TripleCare, a national provider of telemedicine-based health care services to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), announced today that the company has been selected to participate in a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) study evaluating the cost effectiveness of telemedicine utilization in SNFs.
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (August 17, 2017)—The Home Medical Equipment and Services Association of New England (HOMES) is pleased to announce that registration is open for the HOMES Fall Membership Meeting on October 4, 2017 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua, New Hampshire. The Education Committee has created a packed agenda with amazing speakers:
—Via AAHomecare—WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 16, 2017)—Last year, CMS finalized the rule to move forward with expanding the prior authorization (PA) program. Although the program has great support from the industry, AAHomecare expressed concern with the lack of physician involvement in the correspondence of the PA decision. Unlike the PMD Demonstration, under the PA expansion, DME MACs cannot automatically communicate with referring physicians on the PA decision.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 16, 2017)—Last month, CMS published the annual Medicare Fee-For-Service Improper Payments Report. CMS reports that for dates of service between July 2014–June 2015, the error rate for DMEPOS was 46 percent, which is an increase of 7 percent from the previous year. For the report, 10,999 DMEPOS claims were reviewed. However, CMS states that the majority of this rate is attributed to insufficient documentation and not due to medical necessity.
—Via AAHomecare—WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 15, 2017)—On account of requests from several providers to extend the deadline to enter 2nd Quarter 2017 HME Audit Key data, the survey will remain open until Friday, August 25.
—Via CMS—WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 15, 2017)—Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a proposed rule to reduce the number of mandatory geographic areas participating in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s (Innovation Center) Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model from 67 to 34. In addition, CMS proposes to allow CJR participants in the 33 remaining areas to participate on a voluntary basis.
