Table of Contents

2006 Board Member and Ethics Committee Election Results

Write Your Members of Congress on Temporary Medicare Relief

CMS Announces Medicare CY2006 Inflation Update

CMS Announces Ambulance Open Door Forum for December

Write Your Members of Congress on Temporary Medicare Relief

Please write your Members of Congress as soon as possible to ask for their support of temporary Medicare relief for ambulance service providers. Congress is currently finalizing a Budget Reconciliation Bill that could ultimately include modest targeted Medicare provider relief. While no Medicare provisions were included in the House Bill (H.R. 4241) and limited relief in the Senate Bill (S. 1932), there is a small window of opportunity should conferees agree to address Medicare provisions to potentially include temporary ambulance relief in the final Budget Reconciliation Bill. The House is back from the Thanksgiving Day Recess and the conference committee will begin officially when the Senate returns on December 12.

It’s Easy Using the AAA Online Letter Writing Tool

To send letters on temporary Medicare ambulance relief to your Members of Congress using the AAA online letter writing tool, simply click on this link: http://capwiz.com/the-aaa/home/. You can also access the tool through the AAA website at www.the-aaa.org by clicking on “Write to Congress” in the “On Capitol Hill” box.

Details of the Temporary Medicare Ambulance Relief Package

As reported in the recent membership letter by AAA President Bob Garner, the AAA Board of Directors adopted the provisions of the temporary Medicare ambulance relief package at a meeting in late September. Since then, the AAA has presented the package to Members of Congress and staff who are involved with the Budget Reconciliation Bill. While it will be an uphill battle, we have a strong case for the need for additional Medicare reimbursement. The temporary Medicare relief proposed in the AAA package is a reasonable approach to ensuring that ambulance service providers have the necessary resources until a long-term fix is developed.

The specifics of the package are as follows:

1a. Freeze Regional Fee Schedule Blend at 2005 Rate: (60% regional/40% national fee schedule). Please note: This provision would not affect the phase out of the remaining 20% reasonable charge portion of reimbursement. Also, “1a” is bundled with “1b” and the two items are thus one provision.

1b. Increase Reimbursement Rate for Non-regional Fee Schedule Providers: Increase, based on the same dollar amount for the regional freeze, the base rate for providers in states that do not benefit from regional fee schedule.

2. Extend Q-Codes: Freeze Q-Code reimbursement for BLS services provided in an ALS vehicle at the 2005 rate (80% BLS rate/20% ALS rate).

3. Increase Reimbursement to Rural Providers: Increase rate by 4.9 – 5.7 percent for rural providers that do not qualify for the “super rural bonus”.

4. Across the Board Increase for All Providers: Increase rates by 1% for all ambulance service providers regardless of region or service area.

If you have any questions regarding contacting your Members of Congress or the package, please contact me at tnorth@the-aaa.org or 1-800-523-4447. Please feel free to forward this Call To Action to members of your state ambulance association and please write your Members of Congress by no later than December 5.

CMS Announces
Medicare CY2006 Inflation Update

As reported last week in an AAA Member Advisory, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a notice in the November 25 issue of the Federal Register confirming that the 2006 inflation update will be 2.5%. Last summer, the AAA had announced the update would be 2.5% but that figure was unofficial until CMS had issued a notice as it did with the percentage increase.

CMS Announces Ambulance Open Door Forum for December

Pursuant to an AAA Member Advisory distributed last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the next Ambulance Open Door Forum will be held on December 14 at 2:00 p.m. (eastern). To access the Forum, dial 1-800-837-1935 and provide the operator with the reference conference ID of 2778120. Below are the details of the Forum.

CMS Ambulance Open Door Forum
Date: December 14, 2005
Time: 2:00 p.m. (eastern)
Conference Leaders: Bill Rogers, Charlotte Yeh and Rich Lawlor
Call-In Number: 1-800-837-1935
Conference ID: 2778120

TYY Communications Relay Services are available for the Hearing Impaired. For TTY services dial 7-1-1 or 1-800-855-2880 and for Internet Relay services click here http://www.consumer.att.com/relay/which/index.html . A Relay Communications Assistant will help.

ENCORE: 1-800-642-1687; Conf. ID# 2778120
"Encore" is a recording of this call that can be accessed by dialing 1-800-642-1687 and entering the Conf. ID., beginning 2 hours after the call has ended. The recording expires after 3 business days.

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