VGM Government Relations Blog

The Heartland Conference 2021 moves to September.

VGM’s annual Heartland Conference has shifted from June 14–16 to Sept. 13–15, 2021. All networking and educational...

CMS has announced they identified and corrected errors that were made when calculating and publishing the fee schedule that they released on December 11, 2020. Changes have been made to 920 code/modifier combinations (not 920 individual codes), and the majority of the changes are less than 1%. However, for roughly 70 code/modifier combinations (approximately 8% of the total combinations impacted), most of which use the KE modifier, the changes are more significant, ranging from a 30% decrease...

Mark Higley, vice president of Regulatory Affairs has analyzed the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Tax Treatment for Federal and State Taxes. Below is the summary of the federal taxes. For the full analysis and commentary, please click HERE. 

Federal

On January 6, 2021, the IRS released Revenue Ruling 2021-02 that declares its previous Notice 2020-32 superseded. Notice 2020-32 stated expenses paid with PPP loan proceeds expected to be forgiven were not deductible. However,...

According to a White House press release the Paycheck Protection Program will, for a period of 14 days, only be available to businesses with fewer than 20 employees. The 2-week period is scheduled to begin Wednesday, February 24, and is being implemented in an effort to make sure that these very small businesses do not get excluded from receiving money through the program.

In addition to that 2-week period to focus on very small businesses, other changes being made to the Paycheck Protection...

Power Outages due to Winter Storms Cause Catastrophe for HME Patients and Providers

Severe weather has caused deadly, ripple effects in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and other states in the country. In Texas, at least ten people have died due to massive power outages.

Basic resources are no longer commonplace. Citizens have resorted to running their cars for heat, and millions are instructed to not consume their tap water. The weather has had disastrous consequences on recipients of...

John Gallagher, Rep. Miller-Meeks, VGM CEO Mike Mallaro) (Tom Powers, Mike Mallaro, and Miller-Meeks)

As the 117th Congress hits the ground running, VGM realizes the importance of all new congressional leaders understanding the initiatives of the DMEPOS industry and how it impacts our members, vendor partners, and ultimately their livelihood and the patients’ continuum of care.

Earlier this week, our team...

Mark Higley presented at the 2020 HME News Business Summit Sept. 15–17. His session, “The 14th Annual HME News/VGM Group Financial Benchmarking Survey,” included a series of data, trends, and analysis as to the state of the industry from 2010 to the present, as well as financial and operational highlights from supplier submissions applicable to their 2019 results. This report is a summarized version of the presentation.

Complete the 2021 delivery cost survey here!

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As announced in December 2020, TRICARE is proposing a change to how they reimburse for DMEPOS and PEN (DME, O&P, and Enteral Nutrition) items that do not have specific reimbursement rates on the Medicare fee schedule. They have created a TRICARE-specific fee schedule for these otherwise unlisted/unpriced items, and that additional fee schedule is set to be implemented effective July 1, 2021.

TRICARE is accepting comments until January 28, 2021. If you feel you would be impacted by this...