Stakeholders throughout the complex rehab technology (CRT) industry are urging support for H.R. 7217, a new Medicare bill that includes provisions related to CRT manual wheelchair accessories.

The bill is called the Improving Medicaid Programs and Opportunities for Eligible Beneficiaries Act, aka, the IMPROVE Act.

H.R. 7217 includes a number of provisions, but NCART Executive Director Don Clayback pointed out “the two very important CRT provisions” in a Dec. 6 bulletin to stakeholders.

The bill “provides a permanent exemption from the Competitive Bidding Program for CRT manual wheelchair bases (just like there is for CRT power wheelchairs),” Clayback said in his bulletin. It also “provides an 18-month ‘suspension’ in the current application of Competitive Bidding Program payment rates to CRT manual wheelchair accessories.”

That means those accessories would “go back to being paid at the traditional Medicare rates, just like for CRT power wheelchair accessories.” The 18-month period would start Jan. 1, 2019, and run through June 30, 2020, to “allow time for the needed discussion to make a permanent policy change,” Clayback explained.

Clayback added that the bill is expected to have bipartisan support and “focuses on improvements to the Medicaid program for children and adults with disabilities.”

He indicated that H.R. 7217 could be voted on this week. After passing the House, the bill would go to the Senate for a vote.

The industry had been hoping that provisions in H.R. 3730 would be attached to a larger bill that was likely to get a vote before year’s end.

“While this is great progress,” Clayback told stakeholders of H.R. 7217, “it still needs to get passed. The House and Senate MUST hear from their constituents that this MUST be passed this year.”

To contact your Rep and your Senators, visit http://www.access2crt.org/advocacy.

Read H.R. 7217 HERE.