National bid expansion’s full cuts to the DMEPOS fee schedule for non-bid areas, which take effect July 1, will have an average reduction of more than 50 percent to reimbursement on items covered by the expansion, according to analysis from the American Association for Homecare.
AAHomecare reports that it analyzed 26 of the most common DMEPOS HCPCS codes across the eight regions that CMS used to average out its phase-in rates, which lasted the first six months of 2016, and the full rates that now go into effect.
Starting July 1, providers will see an approximately 12.8 percent decrease nationwide from the phase-in rates that began on January 1. Compared to the 2015 fee schedule, the July 1 rates represent an average 51.1 percent cut.
Broken down regionally, the Mideast will see the largest cuts from 2015, dropping an average 52.7 percent.
Key files providers should review:
A full regional analysis is available from AAHomecare at http://bit.ly/2991ZNH.
CMS’s full set of files with the new fee schedules is available at http://go.cms.gov/294o0up.
CMS’s fact sheet on the newly released fee schedule is available at http://go.cms.gov/29hz79a.