The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a Proposed Rule today that could have a big impact on your bottom line. If the Proposed Rule is implemented without modification, ambulance services will almost certainly see a decrease in Medicare reimbursement in the coming years. Click on the title of this news article for complete information and an action plan.

The OIG has recently issued two new pieces of guidance on the waiver of copayments. The OIG's general policy statement addresses the waiver of copayments by providers and suppliers affected by the retroactive ambulance rate increases. Advisory Opinion 10-10 deals with the waiver of copayments by neighboring, municipal EMS agencies for the residents of each other's jurisdictions. Click the link to review both of these new OIG guidance documents.

In what is becoming a tiresome exercise in federal agency indecision, the Federal Trade Commission yet again delayed enforcement of the Red Flag Rules regarding identity theft prevention and detection. This most recent 11th-hour enforcement delay is until December 31, 2010. Therefore, though the Rules are in effect, the FTC will not begin to enforce them until at least January 1, 2011 - though Congressional action to narrow the scope of the rules may occur before then. Stay tuned to www.pwwemslaw.com for updates.

CMS has issed the much-anticipated Transmittal regarding the implementation of the retroactive ambulance increases added by the healthcare reform law. These increases will be retroactive to January 1, 2010 and CMS has instructed its Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to implement these increases by July 6, 2010. This will involve reprocessing Medicare ambulance claims with dates of service of January 1, 2010 until the date the new rates are implemented. This includes an extension of the 2% urban bonus, the 3% rural bonus, and the 22.6% "super rural" bonus until December 31, 2010.

Congress took a big step in setting the stage for nationwide healthcare reform late Sunday night when the House of Representatives narrowly passed the Senate’s healthcare reform bill. The House then proceeded to approve “fixes” to the Senate bill in a separate piece of legislation, the “Reconciliation Bill”. The Reconciliation Bill must still be passed by the Senate through a majority vote, and that is expected to happen sometime this week. After a signature from the President on both bills, the two measures will be merged into one healthcare reform package. The bills bring sweeping changes to healthcare industry and they will no doubt have an effect on ambulance services.