Wishing You and Yours a Safe
and Happy Holiday Season
from the KMESA Board and Staff!
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CALL TO ACTION!
Contact Legislators on Medicare Oxygen Cap
Our industry is reeling from the effects of the pending Medicare oxygen cap and the CMS' guidance published in the 2009 Physician Fee Schedule final rule. These vague regulations are confusing at best and completely inadequate for both providers and consumers of home oxygen therapy.
The final rule has just been published with a comment period set to expire on December 29, just 3 days prior to implementation. It is time to take action and turn up the heat. We must alert our legislators to the problems these policy changes are causing. While a legislative fix may not be possible prior to the Holiday break, we must begin and/or keep up the contact with our legislators regarding these issues.
What YOU Need to Do:
1) Educate Congress: -- Alert your Congressional representative and inform them about this rule change. Contact them by phone, email or fax or better yet call them in the district and ask for a local meeting. Here is an assortment of helpful documents and resources to assist you:
- Click here for the SBA Letter to Acting CMS Director Kerry Weems
- Click here for the CMS Beneficiary Oxygen Tip Sheet
- Click here for the Dear Colleague Letter
- Click here for AAHomecare talking points on the oxygen cap.
- Click here for the oxygen payment rules published 10/30/08.
- Click here for a sample letter from providers to legislators developed by VGM.
- Click here for a sample letter from providers to patients developed by VGM.
- Click here for a list of Kentucky federal legislators.
When you make contact with these offices, please copy Judy Bunn at the KMESA office at info@kymesaorg. We need to track all communications with the Kentucky delegation. It is critical that providers make legislators aware of the ramifications of the new payment rules for oxygen and understand how these new rules will affect the beneficiaries and the small- business providers.
2) Comment on the proposed rule -- Like many difficult issues, the industry is working on both short-term and long-term fronts. AAHomecare just released an Action Alert that describes what can be done today and what we're working on in the coming weeks and months. Besides reaching out to legislators about this upcoming change, there are two other action items you can do over the next month:
a) Share problems -- please send any problems you are experiencing (Ie. Patients moving out of state, ect.)to info@kymesa.org so we can gather these stories and elevate to AAHomecare and legislators. We know it's difficult to stop and communicate, but we must have actual examples of these issues to demonstrate the very real negagive impact of this policy.
b) Comment on the rule - The deadline is December 29, 2008. Providers may want to select one or two key points and use examples from their own HME practice to illustrate the points. The oxygen materials linked above provide background and talking points. You may submit your comments via email or regular mail. Refer to the AAHomecare Action Alert for details.
