CRT Accessories Bills Reintroduced in House & Senate

• By Laurie Watanabe
• Mar 07, 2017

New bills regarding funding for complex rehab technology (CRT) wheelchair accessories have been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

According to NCART Executive Director Don Clayback, the new bill numbers are H.R. 1361 for the House and S. 486 for the Senate.

In a March 3 letter to industry stakeholders, Clayback thanked the “CRT champions” who introduced the bills: Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.).

The bills seek to prevent the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from applying prices derived from its highly controversial Medicare competitive bidding program to CRT wheelchair accessories.

This issue has been before Congress in the past, but previous bills have expired before being passed.

Among the industry’s arguments against CMS’s funding for CRT wheelchair accessories is that the agency is applying competitive bidding pricing for standard wheelchair accessories to complex rehab wheelchair accessories.

NCART also points out that the Medicare Improvements for Patients & Providers Act of 2008 excluded complex rehab power chairs and their accessories from CMS’s competitive bidding program.

Clayback said in his March 3 announcement that the association would next work on signing up cosponsors for the bills.

“We will be updating our materials to help you reach out to your members of Congress,” he said. “Stay tuned and polish up your advocacy skills. This is going to be a great year for CRT!”