Agency Mulls Easing Pessary Reimbursement Rules.

WASHINGTON -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is considering a move to ease reimbursement for physicians who want to dispense pessaries in their offices to Medicare beneficiaries.

The agency, formerly known as the Health Care Financing Administration, is debating whether to allow physicians to dispense pessaries without the added hassle of first obtaining a Durable Medical Equipment Regional Carrier (DMERC) supplier number.

Under current law, providers who wish to dispense pessaries must request a DMERC number by filling out a several-page form. "It's a really complicated form," one that many ob.gyns. do not want to deal with, said Dr. Hal Lawrence, an ob.gyn. in Asheville, N.C.

But if a physician chooses not to have a DMERC number, patients--many of whom are elderly--must bear the burden of procuring the device and getting reimbursed for it later. These women are given a prescription for a pessary, which they must send in to the pessary manufacturer or distributor, which then sends the device either to the patient or her physician.

Patients then have to file with Medicare to get reimbursed for the pessary.

In response to complaints from physicians about having to obtain a DMERC number for the sole purpose of dispensing pessaries, the CMS is considering dropping the requirement. If this were to occur, physicians would be able to bill their local Medicare carrier for pessary reimbursement just as they would any other covered service.

There's no word on when a decision will be made on the issue, according to a CMS spokesperson.