The “Dear Colleague” letter from members of Congress was sent to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure with 22 signatures.
In an Oct. 16 bulletin, the National Coalition for Assistive & Rehab Technology (NCART) updated stakeholders on the Complex Rehab Technology (CRT) industry’s latest effort to urge CMS to open the Medicare coverage determination process for power standing on power wheelchairs.
The letter was introduced in mid-September — shortly before the NCART/U.S. Rehab legislative fly-in and lobbying event on Sept. 24 — by Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.).
Dingell and Fitzpatrick, who co-chair the Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus, sent a similar letter to Brooks-LaSure in July 2023.
Twenty more representatives signed onto the letter sent in September: Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.); Sean Casten (D-Ill.); Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.); Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.); Don Davis (D-N.C.); Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.); Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.); Dwight Evans (D-Penn.); Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.); Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.); Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.); Hank Johnson (D-Ga.); Dan Meuser (R-Pa.); Eleanor Norton (D-D.C.); Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.); Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.); Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.); Dina Titus (D-Nev.); and Nikema Williams (D-Ga.).
“NCART is extremely grateful to representatives Dingell and Fitzpatrick, as well as to the 20 additional members of Congress who signed on in support of this effort, for their continued leadership and dedication in seeking Medicare coverage of standing systems in power wheelchairs,” NCART said.
The ITEM Coalition and other CRT stakeholders originally filed the request for a power standing coverage determination in September 2020.
