January Archives

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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...

On Monday January 25, newly-elected member of Congress Ashley Hinson from Iowa’s first district visited VGM.

The socially-distanced and masked-up meeting took place at VGM’s main campus in Waterloo. Rep. Hinson met with senior leadership team members as well as John Gallagher, Tom Powers, and Emily Harken from the Government Relations team. 

The group discussed concerns within the home medical equipment industry, primarily decreased reimbursement...

Be sure to sign up for our upcoming webinar, "VGM Government PPP and EIDL Update," on Feb. 9 at 2 p.m. CT!

Through the passage of yet another piece of legislation related to COVID-19 relief, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, additional funding has been added to two separate and popular programs designed to help small businesses access forgivable dollars to help them survive the COVID-19 pandemic. The two programs in question are the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the...

By Mark J. Higley, Vice-President, Regulatory Affairs, VGM & Associates, Inc. 

On January 15, CMS publicly shared the pivotal bid (“clearing price”) amounts for the 13 product categories that were withheld from the Round 2021 program.

As most are aware, 16 product categories were originally included in the program. Non-invasive ventilation was dropped from the competition earlier due to concerns relative to the public health emergency. Two categories...

For providers who received more than $10,000 in total payments from the HHS Provider Relief Fund (PRF), HHS is requiring those providers to submit at least one report, and possibly a second report, showing how the funds were utilized. Initially, HHS had said that the reporting portal would open on January 15th, and that the first report for all providers would be due no later than February 15th. The portal did indeed open on January 15th, but the only thing providers can do at this point is register...

We are continuing to collect information from our VGM members, state associations, and other sources on the COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Click here to see the data currently collected of how individual states are handing the distribution and whether HME providers are currently able to receive the vaccination.

If you have information that is not on this spreadsheet regarding availability to HME providers, or any resourceful links, please send to [email protected].

On Thursday, January 7, 2021, former HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced an extension of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). This PHE was initially declared on January 31, 2020 (with acknowledgement that it has existed since January 27th). Any PHE declaration can only last for 90 days at a time, but can be extended or renewed. It has already been renewed multiple time throughout 2020, and the 90 day extension that occurred in October 2020 was set to expire on or around January 21. There...

Complete the 2021 delivery cost survey here!

In 2018 we coordinated a survey which resulted in being able to provide elected officials and other payers or regulatory entities the actual cost to HME providers of delivering quality products to a patient’s home or institution. We were successful in obtaining some reimbursement relief via a 50/50 blend in our rural areas, and CMS and other payers seemed to acknowledge there would be access issues if HMEs were unable to service patients...

VGM, along with the HME State Associations and AAHomecare have been tracking the status of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution by state and whether HME providers are included in early distribution.

Click here to see the data currently collected of how individual states are handing the distribution and whether HME providers are currently able to receive the vaccination.

Please reach out to [email protected] if you have information to share regarding vaccine distribution, that...