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Welcome to the National Association for the Support of Long Term Care. NASL is the only organization at the national level that concentrates its involvement exclusively on legislative and regulatory matters affecting the provision of ancillary services, products supply components, diagnostic testing and information systems to the post-acute care industry.

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CMS has announced that it will hold a provider education call on DMEPOS competitive bidding on Tuesday, May 13, at 12:30 PM EDT. You must register for the call to receive call-in information. To register participants need to go to: http://www2.eventsvc.com/palmettogba/051308 and complete the required information. NASL will cover the meeting and will provide a summary of the call to members of the NASL Products Committee.

May 2, 2008 CMS has issued a final rule covering payments to long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) for the 2009 rate year, which begins July 1. The rule calls for an increase of 2.7 percent over the current rate year. The final rule will be posted on the
CMS website.

May 1, 2008 CMS has issued the proposed rule for payments to SNFs in FY 2009. The proposed rule includes a recalibration in RUGs that would cause a hit in payments to nursing homes of $770 million, or 3.3 percent. However, this decrease would be partially offset by a proposed update of 3.1 percent in the SNF “market basket” payment. NASL will be providing a more detailed summary of the proposed rule to members shortly. For further information, see www.cms.hhs.gov/center/snf.asp. Public comments on the proposal will be accepted until June 30, 2008.

April 29, 2008 The Health Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee issued a press release today announcing that it will conduct a hearing on the DMEPOS competitive bidding program. The hearing is set for Tuesday, May 6 at 1:00 PM EDT. NASL has requested an opportunity to testify, but it is more likely that we will be submitting a statement for the record.

April 29, 2008 CMS issued a proposed rule to update and revise the Medicare hospice wage index (WI) for fiscal year (FY) 2009. CMS proposes to phase out an outdated adjustment to the hospice wage index that was put into place over 10 years ago. To view the entire Fact Sheet: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/fact_sheets.asp

April 24, 2008 A letter was sent today to HHS Secretary Leavitt signed by seven GOP senators in which they raise a number of concerns regarding the implementation of the DMEPOS competitive bidding program. The senators have requested a meeting to discuss their concerns and the potential of delaying implementation. As implementation of Round 1 draws closer, there are increasing signs of concern on Capitol Hill.