ALERT: DURABLE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT – IMPLEMENTATION DELAYED UNTIL OCTOBER 1, 2013

In an alert issued by CMS today, June 27, 2013, entitled Additional Time to Establish Protocols for Newly Required Face-to-Face Encounters for Durable Medical Equipment (DME) the agency stated, “Due to concerns that some providers and suppliers may need additional time to establish operational protocols necessary to comply with face-to-face encounter requirements mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for certain items of DME, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will start actively enforcing and will expect full compliance with the DME face-to-face requirements beginning on October 1, 2013.” The full text of the CMS alert:  http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Monitoring-Programs/Medical-Review/FacetoFaceEncounterRequirementforCertainDurableMedicalEquipment.html  AANP would like to thank each of you who responded to the request to contact your Members of Congress which garnered over 3,000 letters. We believe these efforts compelled CMS to delay the implementation of this requirement.  We now have 90 days to continue a dialogue with CMS on the concerns NPs have with this requirement. As always, we will continue to provide you with updates on this matter as discussions progress.  Again we thank you for your efforts; they truly made an impact.  Mary Anne Sapio  Vice President Federal Government Affairs  American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)  225 Reinekers Ln. Suite 525  Alexandria, VA 22314  Tel. 703-740-2529 x222  Cell: 202-288-2112  Email: msapio@aanp.org  Web: www.aanp.org