House Upvotes Spending Bill Containing CRT Language

House up-votes spending package, which protects manual CRT wheelchairs and accessories. Now the appropriations bill, which must pass by Dec. 20, moves to the Senate. Providers still need to help the effort.

• By David Kopf
• Dec 17, 2019

Manual CRT providers might get an early Christmas present in Congress’ year-end spending bill, but they need to contact their members of Congress and ensure they're on the "nice list."

The House voted 297-120 to approve H.R. 1865, the omnibus spending package that includes provisions from industry legislation that will protect manual CRT chairs and accessories from competitive bidding. The appropriations legislation now moves to the Senate, and must become law by Dec. 20 in order to keep funding the government.

Specifically, the language comes from H.R. 2293 and S.1223, the Protecting Access to Wheelchairs Act of 2019, which provides a permanent exemption from competitive bid program exemption for manual CRT wheelchairs. It also suspends the application of competitive bidding-derived rates for manual CRT wheelchair accessories for 18 months, starting Jan. 1, 2020.

The provisions cover manual CRT wheelchairs falling under HCPCS codes E1235, E1236, E1237, E1238, and K0008, as well as accessories for those chairs.

The CRT language from the full House appropriations bill can be found in Section 106, which the American Association for Homecare has uploaded as a PDF at bit.ly/38Mxaf7.

Wait! The Job’s Not Done

However, the inclusion of the language is not the end of the line. As Don Clayback, Executive Director of the National Coalition for Assistive & Rehab Technology (NCART), points out, now the Senate needs pass the legislation — and that requires continued lobbying.

“Let your Senators know what you want them to do!” Clayback noted. “If you have not done so yet, use the links at www.protectmymobility.org to tell your Senators how important it is they pass H.R. 1865 this week. It will take less than three minutes to add your voice.”