The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a six-month extension of the temporary moratoria on the enrollment of new Part B non-emergency ground ambulance providers and suppliers for all counties in New Jersey.
The extension of the ambulance provider moratoria also applies statewide for neighboring Pennsylvania as well as for Texas.
In addition, CMS also extended the moratoria on newly enrolling home health agencies in Florida, Illinois, Michigan and Texas.
Acting under authority granted by Section 6401(a) of the Affordable Care Act, CMS may impose a temporary moratorium, defined as six months, on the enrollment of new Medicare, Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) providers and suppliers if it is deemed necessary to prevent or combat fraud, waste or abuse.
CMS first imposed a moratorium on the enrollment of ground ambulance providers in July 2013. The initial moratoria was limited to the Philadelphia metropolitan region (Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties in New Jersey and Bucks, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania) and to select counties in Texas. These moratoria have remained in place through several extensions published in the Federal Register.
On Aug. 3, CMS expanded the temporary moratoria on ambulance providers statewide for all counties in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas. However, after evaluating the risk to the Medicare program, CMS revised the moratoria to include only non-emergency ambulance providers in these states. The moratoria for new emergency ambulance providers was lifted.
The moratoria on the enrollment of home health agencies was first imposed for select counties in Florida and Illinois, then expanded to select counties in Michigan and Texas. In 2016 these moratoria were expanded to all counties in these four states.
Both the home health and non-emergency ambulance provider temporary moratoria have been extended for six months. The official notice is slated to appear in the Jan. 9 Federal Register. The changes apply to the Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP programs and are effective Jan. 29, 2017.
