The American Association for Homecare is calling on providers to participate in a study that is assessing the direct and indirect costs of providing intermittent catheters.
AAHomecare has engaged the actuary firm Dobson | DaVanzo & Associates to conduct a study, which will study costs related to provisioning intermittent catheters under HCPCS A4351, A4352, A4353. Individual company responses will be confidential, and data will only be shared in aggregate with the overall nationwide survey findings.
“The intention of the study is to help the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and other payers better understand the comprehensive costs of caring for individuals who receive these products,” AAHomecare noted in a public statement. “Suppliers who provide intermittent catheters to Medicare beneficiaries are encouraged to take the survey.
The reason for the survey is that OIG is working on a report and supplier survey that is only looking at the acquisition costs related to urinary supplies, which will be compared to Medicare fee-for-service allowables. CMS could potentially use the information to adjust the fee schedule for those items and potentially include the product category in a future round of competitive bidding.
“The OIG is currently conducting a supplier survey that exclusively looks at acquisition cost and does not factor the non-product costs of providing urological supplies, such as customer support, compliance, documentation requirements, and overall business operations,” AAHomecare noted. “Stakeholders in the urological supplies space are concerned that this survey will not adequately represent the true costs and expertise required for this product category, which could lead to rate reductions that jeopardize patient access to care.”
For more information and to participate in the survey, contact Ashley Plauché, AAHomecare’s director of Member & Public Relations, at [email protected].
