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Write Your Members of Congress on Temporary Medicare Relief

CMS Launches Reorganized Website

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 Launches Reorganized Website

Yesterday, December 13, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) launched a reorganized website which is intended to be easier to browse by audience or topic. The new "Center" links on the home page navigation bar provide one-stop-shopping areas targeted to specific professional audience needs. The Medicare Fee-for-Service Provider Center will include links to pages developed specifically for physicians, hospitals, ambulance service providers and other Medicare providers and suppliers. The "Center" pages are also available through the "Browse by Audience" feature. The topic pages are organized under eight major subject areas, which are then divided into categories and sections. All section links have overview pages designed to provide general information about the specific section. The topic pages are available from the home page or through the "Browse by Subject" feature. (FYI, the Medlearn Web Page is under the "Outreach and Education" topic page!)

The new website also introduces an improved Google search feature, which will make it even easier for you to locate information. After the new website is launched, users who enter URLs from the old website will be automatically redirected to the new web pages. Please follow the directions and be sure to change your favorites or bookmarks to reflect the new URLs. For a preview of the new website, follow this link for a demonstration:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/cms_redesign_demo.asp. The reorganized website can still be found at the old CMS website address of www.cms.hhs.gov and is expected to be operational on December 15, 2005.

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