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CMS-1403-FC
additional rental payments for the remainder of the
equipment’s reasonable useful lifetime. It is difficult to
estimate the impact of this change, but we believe the
impact will be minimal and, therefore, do not believe it
will be economically significant.
In addition, our regulations implementing MIPPA may
provide a slight financial benefit to Medicare because we
have determined that at this time it is not reasonable and
necessary to make payments for non-routine maintenance and
servicing (including repair) of supplier-owned oxygen
equipment. We understand that oxygen equipment is very
durable and should need few repairs in the first 5 years.
Any costs suppliers may incur in repairs would be offset by
the gains they achieve through retaining ownership of the
equipment. Taken together, we expect these changes to have
a minimal impact on Medicare expenditures.
10. Section 145: Clinical Laboratory Tests
Section 145 of the MIPPA reduces the Clinical
Laboratory Fee Schedule update by 0.5 percentage points for
each year, CY 2009 through CY 2013, and is estimated to
result in an incurred benefit savings of $40 million.
11. Section 146: Improved Access to Ambulance Services
Section 146 of the MIPPA makes certain changes to
Medicare payment for ambulance services. Specifically,
this section: increases the payment rate under the
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