HME providers are being urged to support a Congressional sign-on letter from Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) that is urging lawmakers to support competitive bidding for rural and non-bid area providers.
The deadline for supporting the letter been stretched to July 11 and groups such as the American Association for Homecare are calling on provider to urge their Senators to support the letter.
“We need as many Senators as possible to sign the letter to show the administration that there is Senate support for relief on rural/non-competitive bidding area rates,” a statement from AAHomecare read. “Please reach out to your Senators and ask that they sign the letter.”
Essentially, the letter calls on CMS to “swiftly” use its regulatory authority to come into compliance with all of the provisions of the CURES Act, including those that require CMS to study the full impact of national bid expansion on rural and non-bid areas, as well as to take into consideration factors such as travel costs, supply and service volume, and the number of providers in an area, when calculating reimbursement.
The full text of the letter is available at http://bit.ly/2tPqGdX.
To help providers reach out to their lawmaker, AAHoemcare is providing its Grassroots Action Center and suggests that they share the link with patients, caregivers, referrals and coworkers who would support the campaign to get more signatures.