fee schedule for 2020 for various DMEPOS items and several categories will see slight gains during the year.
Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), CMS has set the following for the coming year:
- Former competitive bidding areas (CBA) will see 2019 rates increase by 2.4 percent.
- National mail order diabetic supplies will see 2019 rates plus 2.4 percent. Non-mail order diabetic supplies see no change.
- Non-rural areas increase by 2019 rates plus 1.6 percent.
- Rural/non-contiguous areas will see 50 percent unadjusted fee schedule (2015 fee schedule) and 50 percent new adjusted fee schedule.
- Items not included in competitive bidding increase an average of 0.9 percent.
The American Association for Homecare reports that it examined oxygen reimbursement and found that due to the implementation of budget neutrality, whose codes will see:
- Former CBAs will see oxygen reimbursement increase an average of 2 percent from 2019 rates.
- Oxygen in non-rural, non-CBAs areas will gain an average of 3.5 percent from 2019 reimbursement.
- Rural areas saw an average 1.5 percent increase from 2019 rates for oxygen.
The association also analyzed the top 25 HCPCS codes for each region and former CBA and found CMS’s 2020 rates to be consistent with the agency’s explanation of the fee schedule updates.
Additionally, AAHomecare provided region-by-region analysis for additional perspective:
- Far West – CA, OR, NV, WA
- Great Lakes – IL, IN, MI, OH, WI
- Mideast – DE, DC, MD, NJ, NY, PA
- New England – CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
- Plains – IA ,KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD
- Rocky Mountains – CO, ID, MT, UT, WY
- Southeast – AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV
- Southwest – AZ, NM, OK, TX
- Former CBAs