RSS URLNews release
3/24/2008
Proposed Rulemaking from the CMS
Late last week, the industry became aware of a proposed rulemaking from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that could impact future Medicaid reimbursement for non-emergency transports. On February 22, 2008, CMS issued a proposed rule that gives states the option to move certain Medicaid recipients from traditional Medicaid coverage to "benchmark" or "benchmark-equivalent" coverage. As part of the proposed rule, benchmark and benchmark-equivalent plans would be exempted from the requirement to provide non-emergency transportation for Medicaid recipients to or from health care providers.
The comment period on this proposed rule ends TODAY at 5 p.m. Eastern time. On Friday, the American Ambulance Association (AAA) notified members that it had filed a comment on behalf of its members. The AAA comment letter is posted on http://www.the-aaa.org/Oncapitolhill/current_issues.htm.
Additionally, the law firm of Page, Wolfberg & Wirth has posted a copy of the comment letter that they have drafted, and have advised that the contents of that letter may be used freely by anyone for the purpose of submitting comments to CMS. http://www.pwwemslaw.com/content.aspx?id=346
Comments on this proposed rule may be submitted electronically here. A .pdf file of the proposed rule is also available on this page. Again, the deadline for filing comments is 5:00 PM Eastern time TODAY.
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About Ortivus:
The North American Subsidiary of Ortivus develops and markets integrated software solutions for Emergency Medical Services and Public Safety: EMS billing, patient care reporting, computer-aided dispatch, automatic vehicle location, mobile data application, and patient vital signs monitoring and data transmission.
The Ortivus vision is to be the customer’s preferred provider of integrated information and decision-making software support systems in the Emergency Medical Service, Public Safety and Healthcare industries.
Ortivus operates out of two North American corporate office locations (Decorah, Iowa, US and Montreal, Quebec, Canada), as well as several international locations (Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Great Britain).