Access & Care Coalition

The WOCN Society is a member of the Access & Care Coalition. The mission of the Coalition is to counter restricted consumer access to medical supplies under Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. The Access & Care Coalition consists of urological and ostomy medical technology suppliers and manufacturers, as well as clinician, physician, and consumer and disability advocates. The Coalition will take action on health policy matters that:

• Are in the best interests of high-quality care that maximize function and independent living for people with disabilities; and
• Can provide people with disabilities with their choice of, and access to, the prescribed and medically appropriate urological and ostomy medical technology and supplies.

Working closely with consumer and disability advocates, providers and manufacturers of continence care products and the physician and clinical communities, the Coalition has agreed to work within the regulatory and/or legislative framework to address coverage, coding and payment policy changes as they relate to urological and ostomy medical technology and supplies, medical documentation improvements and standards of care.

Recently, this coalition developed educational materials for consumers and home health providers about the coverage and usage of urologic and ostomy supplies under the Medicare home health benefit.  This material was intended to educate consumers about their right to quality products and how to ensure they receive the proper care and supplies.  The materials can be found here.

In addition, the Coalition created a similar education document intended for home health nurses and therapists, which can be found here.

A subgroup of the Coalition including WOCN representatives are looking at the current regulation of bundling ostomy and urological supplies in home health and exploring if there are opportunities to advocate unbundling supplies in the home health arena focusing on the importance of individualized care.