It’s been a busy week. Carol Johnson, OTR/L from North Carolina has recently joined the JoViPak staff and we spent most of our time last week working on product development and writing letters to our legislators in Washington D.C. asking for their support of the House Bill 4662. (Refer to my previous blogs.) As therapists we want our lymphedema patients to have the best care possible and it is very difficult for us to watch our elderly clientele go without because Medicare won’t pay for their treatment or the products they need to manage their condition.
The author of this bill is Bob Weiss whose wife has struggled with lymphedema for years. It continues to amaze me how much effort and personal expense he as invested into being an advocate for the lymphedema community. Both he and Carol will be meeting with several legislators next month in Washington D.C. to discuss the various aspects of this bill.
As we get caught up in our enthusiasm over the possibility of Medicare paying for lymphedema treatment and supplies, we can’t ignore one serious ramification. What if Medicare takes it on and gives lymphedema supplies, e.g. compression garments, HCPC billing codes and reimbursement amounts that are far below the cost to manufacture these products or the wholesale cost to resellers. It is safe to assume that once Medicare establishes a price, other insurance companies will follow. If in doing that, we force the manufacturers and the DME’s who sell these products out of business, then what? Where does that leave the patient? Will they have to look to other countries to provide them with cheaper and quite probably inferior quality products?
Please ask your legislators to support this bill, and it is important that you also ask them to consider, as well as support those people providing the goods and services by acknowledging their right to charge the patient for any shortfall not covered by the Medicare reimbursement.
Tags: Jovipak, Lymphedema, Self-Care Class