The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) has begun phase two in its efforts to reshape Medicare competitive bidding policy.
With the public comment period for the home health proposed rule now closed, AAHomecare is focusing on next steps, including meetings with key leaders to confront the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) plans to restart Medicare competitive bidding for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS).
“This effort is ramping up quickly,” the association said in a Sept. 10 update to stakeholders. AAHomecare CEO/President Tom Ryan, AAHomecare Chairman Josh Marx, and AAHomecare Senior Vice President of Public Policy Jay Witter met with Jim O’Neill, the Department of Health & Human Services deputy secretary, “to discuss industry concerns with provisions from the proposed rule. At the deputy secretary’s suggestion, we’ve secured a follow-up meeting with other CMS staff [the week of Sept. 15].”
AAHomecare is also participating in “additional lobbying with strong connections to the administration that can enable us to reach top-level decision makers on this issue. The campaign will be focused on delivering a powerful message to the most influential voices in the White House, CMS, the Office of Management & Budget, and other important parties in this process.
“We’ll also be fostering strategic engagement with Capitol Hill allies to bolster our influence with the administration, as well as polling, media relations and grassroots mobilization to further support this work as applicable.”
AAHomecare plans to invest more than $3 million for these efforts “to be drawn from association reserves and new fundraising efforts from the DME industry. Already, our partners at VGM and 21 other leading AAHomecare members have pledged more than $750,000 to the effort, and we’ll be expanding the solicitation through our membership ranks in the coming weeks.”
The association has created a competitive bidding advocacy page to help stakeholders keep up with and participate in this campaign.
