This appalling attempt to save money (it doesn't), or to shut up people with disabilities, through ridiculous rules about technology, is repeated every few years by ignorant bureaucrats in Washington and in the states.......
Beginning in April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said beneficiaries could not get upgrades for the devices until after a 13-month rental period.
Then, the agency said that as of Dec. 1 they would no longer approve devices on which these functions were ever possible. In other words, even if the beneficiary wanted to pay for the add-ons, they couldn’t.
Medicare wouldn’t explain why they were doing this, not to PublicSource and not to about 200 lawmakers who sent a letter to CMS in September.
U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, a Republican who represents parts of Southwestern Pennsylvania and is chairman of a subcommittee with public health oversight, sent a letter Nov. 4 demanding answers for what he called a “cruel and uncompassionate” act.
Two days later, Medicare backpedaled on the tough-guy approach it had taken for several months, calling for a 30-day public comment periodas it considers updating the coverage policy to include beyond-speech technology. The comment period ends Dec. 6.
CMS expects to issue revisions to the policy in July.
While some are taking this as a good sign, Lewis Golinker, director at the Assistive Technology Law Center in Ithaca, N.Y., is not as trusting, and he says there are other concerns that are still not addressed, such as routine denials of eye-tracking technology.