Representatives from the American Association for Homecare met with Laurence Wilson, CMS’s director of chronic care policy, as well as other key CMS staff to discuss the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) proposed rule and its impact on the homecare sector.
The proposed End-Stage Renal Disease rule, announced in July, would take competitive bidding pricing national by 2016. AAHomecare discussed concerns with CMS’ proposals to apply competitive bidding rates to non-competitive bidding areas and bundling payments on a limited basis in the next round of bidding.
AAHomecare’s concerns were detailed in the Association’s comments, which were submitted to CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner on Sept. 2.
A statement from the association says this week’s discussions were positive and CMS staff said it they would review the proposals. The association noted it will continue to work with CMS to address concerns with the proposed rule before it’s finalized in late 2014.
“We’ve had a number of meetings with CMS in the past few months, and we’re taking full advantage of these opportunities to be heard. CMS has the power to directly impact our members, and so we’re working hard to keep an open door for communication to them,” said AAHomecare president and CEO Tom Ryan.