WASHINGTON, DC – Last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal legislative branch’s research arm, announced that CMS failed to properly assess potential organizational conflict when they awarded MAXIMUS with the DMEPOS QIC contract. This announcement comes after C2C Innovative Solutions, the current QIC contractor, protested that CMS failed to evaluate organizational conflict of interest.

GAO recommends CMS to investigate whether MAXIMUS has a conflict of interest. You can find the full GAO report here.

AAHomcare Submits Comments on Stark Law

WASHINGTON, DC – AAHomecare submitted comments on CMS-1720-NC, “Medicare Program; Request for Information Regarding the Physician Self-Referral Law.”  This provision, commonly known as the “Stark Law,” is designed to prevent physicians from ordering services and products for beneficiaries when the motivation is for the physicians to make money, as opposed to the motivation of providing effective treatment for the beneficiary.  In the letter, AAHomecare shared support for several restrictions set by the Stark Law, but explained the importance of coordination of care and how the Stark Law may overly limit providers and suppliers from coordinating care.

You can find AAHomecare’s comments here.

New PDAC Code Verification Request Application Available 

WASHINGTON, DC – PDAC’s new electronic Code Verification Request Application is now available on their website. Beginning September 1, PDAC will only accept the new code verification forms, but the old version and the new version of the application will be accepted until August 31. For any issues and questions on the new forms, you can first review the application instruction webpage available here.