Providers Called to Support Congressional Letter by Friday

Stakeholders have until close of business on June 18 to secure signatures for House sign-on letter calling on CMS to extend soon-to-expire protections that exempt manual CRT accessories from competitive bidding.

• By David Kopf
• Jun 17, 2021

Industry advocates are calling on HME providers to act by end of day June 18 to help a fast-turnaround push to collect signatures for a House sign-on letter urging CMS to protect manual CRT accessories from competitive bidding.

“We know everyone has busy schedules, but we have a short time to urge CMS action before June 30," said Don Clayback, executive director of the National Coalition of Assistive & Rehab Technology (NCART), which has spearheaded the effort. "As we work on targeted offices, grassroot messages on a national level will reinforce the importance of this issue to Congress and CMS. A five-minute visit to www.protectmymobility.org will enable stakeholders to send an email to their members.”

Currently, the accessories are protected from competitive bidding thanks to the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, which was passed in December 2019. However, those protections were only supposed to last 18 months and are slated to expire on June 30.

So, Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) is circulating a House sign-on letter asking CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks‐LaSure to permanently extend that exemption. The deadline to sign on is close of business on June 18, so providers are urged to call their lawmakers today and Friday.

“Congress passed legislation in December 2019 to make clear that manual CRT accessories should be exempt for competitive bidding-derived pricing — just as power CRT accessories are — and to give CMS time to address the issue,” Larson notes in his outreach message. “Those measures expire on June 30, so we need quick action from CMS.”

Providers have three ways that they can help:

• They can use a web form on the www.protectmymobility.org site to email their members of Congress to sign the letter. 
• They can use a similar web form from VGM Government Relations.
• They can identify their Representative’s office on the House website and should contact the person on that lawmaker’s staff that specializes in healthcare issues, and directly send that policy contact Larson’s sign-on letter, which is available via PDF from the American Association for Homecare.