Suppliers and manufacturers of durable medical equipment (DME), prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) will be impacted, directly and indirectly, by numerous provisions of the recently-enacted health reform legislation, H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), as amended by H.R. 4872, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Reconciliation Act), collectively known as the “Affordable Care Act” or ACA.
Among other things, the Affordable Care Act: expands the Medicare DMEPOS competitive bidding program; revises the Medicare DMEPOS fee schedule payments (including applying a “productivity adjustment” to the fee schedule update); exempts pharmacies from certain DMEPOS accreditation requirements; revises Medicare power wheelchair payment policy; mandates disclosure of certain payments between manufacturers and physicians; institutes a variety of new program integrity provisions; and imposes a new tax on medical devices. These provisions are discussed in greater detail below.
This memorandum supplements our extensive Affordable Care Act analysis released in April 2010, which explains how the law expands access to health insurance (including through subsidies, mandates, and market reforms); reduces health care spending (particularly in the Medicare program); expands federal fraud and abuse authorities; and institutes a variety of other health policy reforms. We also have posted additional Reed Smith Health Care Reform Review articles focusing on specific aspects of the legislation on our health policy blog, Health Industry Washington Watch, where we also are reporting on implementation efforts associated with the ACA.
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