Submitted Comments

As part of comments submitted to Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation’s Draft Local Coverage Determination for Wound Care, the Alliance flagged eight key concerns and flaws within the policy that negatively impact patient care. Comments focused on WPS’ limiting coverage of debridement while not providing adequate scientific evidence to support its coverage policy. The Alliance questioned the policy’s elimination of a significant number of CPT codes related to debridement and the inclusion of only a limited number of conditions which must be present in order to provide a debridement. The Alliance also flagged many areas where the policy conflicted with other existing DMEMAC policies or violated processes in CMS’s Program Integrity Manual. These comments follow similar comments submitted to WPS in 2017, 2018 and early-2019 raising the same issues. A series of recommendations from the Alliance, addressing each of the eight key concerns, were submitted for WPS consideration as part of comments.
Read Alliance Comments

•  debridement coverage for chronic non pressure ulcers
•  debridement coverage for diabetic ulcers
• utilization parameters for traditional and disposable Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT)

• The under estimation and erroneous valuation of 2 CPT codes: CPT 29580 (Strapping of Unna Boot), and CPT 29581 (Application of multi-layer compression system).
• Supporting the decision to update the equipment items and the amount of oxygen for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) so that the amount of oxygen conforms to the RUC recommended value.
• Requesting national payment rate for CPT Codes 97607 and 97608 - describing negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) services using a disposable device - similar to the rate proposed in the CY2018 hospital outpatient proposed rule.
• In response to CMS’s request for information on flexibility and efficiency opportunities to increase care, reduce costs and reduce burdens for clinicians and patients, the Alliance asked the agency to consider reform of the process it uses to assign new Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Level II billing codes to durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS).