02/07/2013

Round 2 Medicare Bid Rates a Lose-Lose Situation

Email Your Concerns and Problems About the Program Here

OAMES is working with the American Association for Homecare to collect data on the impact of the recently released Round 2 competitive bidding payment rates through CBRound2Problems@aahomecare.org.

To ensure that CMS and members of Congress understand exactly how devastating the impending cuts will be to the industry and to beneficiary access, please send the following information to the email address above—remember to remove any information that might violate privacy laws:

• Data on how your business will be affected by these rates, including possible staffing changes, closures, and consolidations.
• Data on how your beneficiaries will be impacted. Will many of them be required to change providers; how far from those providers do beneficiaries live; will beneficiaries end up paying more or paying out-of-pocket for the equipment they require?
• Anecdotes highlighting the data submitted. Putting a face and name with the data will help drive the message home to members of Congress and CMS officials that these reimbursement cuts will have an extremely detrimental effect on beneficiary access to homecare and income, regardless of what CMS claims in their press release.

It is also important to send these stories to your members of Congress. Members need to hear from providers and beneficiaries regarding the bidding program's negative impacts to show the importance of their support for market pricing program legislation.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact OAMES executive director Kam Yuricich at kam@oames.org or contact the OAMES office at 614-876-2424.