The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) is reporting Medicaid rate increases for home medical equipment (HME) in North Carolina.

In a Nov. 1 bulletin, AAHomecare credited “strong relationships with North Carolina Medicaid officials and members of the state legislature, ACMESA leaders, and the AAHomecare Payer Relations Team” for the $3.2 million increase in funding.

“The ACMESA Medicaid and legislative committees has been working in earnest for the past two years to get a rate increase since North Carolina discontinued a pandemic 5-percent relief-related rate hike,” the announcement said.

Laura Willard, AAHomecare’s VP of Payer Relations, said, “North Carolina HME advocates have done a great job in building relationships and educating policymakers on the value of homecare and need for sustainable reimbursements. Those efforts are critical to succeeding in a highly competitive state budget environment. The ACMESA state legislative team, chaired by Tyler Kiser (TLC Medical), deserve great credit for paving the way.”

ACMESA Executive Director Beth Bowen added, “ACMESA is thankful for the rate increase provided on essential codes on the DME fee schedule. Our strong relationship with NC Medicaid is one we value and has enabled our providers to continue to provide quality DME services to North Carolina Medicaid beneficiaries. ACMESA and AAHomecare will continue to fight in the next legislature to obtain a much-needed across-the-board increase. Now is the time to continue to reach out to our legislators to remind them of the value DME brings to NC Medicaid.”

The increases focus on 13 HCPCS codes that industry advocates have identified as being an “emergency need,” with immediate action required “to ensure access to care.”

The impacted codes include K0005 (ultralightweight manual wheelchairs); E1161 (adult manual tilt-in-space wheelchairs); and K0861 (Group 3 multiple-power wheelchairs).