House Signatures Needed for CRT Congressional Letter to CMS

Published in Complex Rehab on October 05, 2021

This article was originally posted by NCART. Read their blog here.

As reported, we have been working with the ITEM Coalition to secure Medicare coverage for Seat Elevation and Standing Systems used with Complex Rehab Technology (CRT) power wheelchairs.

Evidence shows these CRT systems provide significant medical benefits and enable people with disabilities to be much more independent in their home and community settings. They should be covered within the Medicare program, but are not.

A formal request was submitted to CMS in September 2020 to establish Medicare coverage and was officially “deemed complete” in November 2020. Unfortunately, CMS’ review of the coverage request has not formally progressed since that time and it needs to be moved forward.

To encourage CMS to prioritize the request and proceed to the next step in the review process, a bipartisan Congressional sign-on letter is being circulated in the House of Representatives by Reps. Jim Langevin (D-RI) and Don Young (R-AK). You can view the Dear Colleague letter and the text of the letter to CMS here. We also expect to have a Senate sign-on letter available shortly and will share that as soon as available.

Your help is needed. We need your Representative to contact Reps. Langevin’s or Young’s office to add their name to the letter to CMS. The details are explained in the Dear Colleague letter linked above.

Please use the email link at www.protectmymobility.org to ask your Representative to add their name to the bipartisan letter and support CMS moving forward to the next step in their review of the coverage request. The deadline is October 1.

Thank you for taking action to improve access to CRT!