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Update on Competitive Bidding 2010

from: Update on Competitive Bidding 2010 Specialty Medical Sales Blog

Published January 6, 2010 Update on Competitive Bidding Leave a Comment
Tags: Meeks, H.R.3790, seniors, anti-competitive, HME, jobs, congress, cost-effective

I had several request for an update on Competitive Bidding Process. All bids were due 12/21/2009 from the 10 CMS bid cities. The winners should be announced by late May or June of 2010 with implementation 1/1/2011. Here is what the Public, Patients and Healthcare Professionals can do to voice their opposition: Contact your members of Congress and ask them to SUPPORT H.R. 3790.
CONGRESSMAN KENDRICK MEEK ( D- FLA. ) INTRODUCED H.R. 3790 to end the Medicare ” competitive” bidding program for home medical equipment and services (HME).
This bill would eliminate the bidding program because it is fatally flawed and these flaws were not corrected over the past 12 months by CMS. The cost of eliminating the program would be offset by reductions in DMEPOS payment rates, ensuring that seniors and taxpayers still receive the intended savings from the bidding program while protecting patient access to care.
American Association for Homecare, The VGM Group, Inc., and several state associations strongly urge support for H.R. 3790. The bidding program restricts access to quality home care for seniors and people with disabilities. Providers of home medical equipment face serious disruption to their businesses if competitive bidding becomes the mechanism for Medicare reimbursement rates.

Sacrifices Care for Seniors and People with Disabilities
· Competitive bidding reduces patient access and choice for quality HME items and services. . The program selectively contracts with a very restricted number of homecare providers based on the lowest-bid prices.
Eliminates Businesses and Jobs (Anti-competitive)
· The bid program is actually anti-competitive because it reduces the number of market competitors. 90 percent of qualified home medical equipment and service providers would have been barred from providing HME items and services to Medicare beneficiaries in the first round of bidding. The Medicare bid program will result in job losses and business failure for thousands of small providers, which runs counter to the President’s February 24 speech to Congress when he pledged to “do whatever it takes to help the small business that can’t pay its workers.”
CMS Did Not Correct the Fundamental Flaws in the Program
· The bid program is fundamentally flawed. The program was postponed by Congress in the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA), but CMS did not correct the chief flaws before reissuing regulations to restart the bidding.
Bidding Is Not a Cost-effective Solution for Medicare
· Competitive bidding will increase Medicare costs because it will lead to more expensive, longer hospital stays, shifting costs from Medicare Part B to Part A.
· Home medical equipment and services already provide a cost-effective alternative to expensive institutional care and a solution for controlling spending growth in Medicare. For instance, under Medicare, a day of oxygen therapy costs less than $7 per day. A day in the hospital costs more than $5,500.
· Home medical equipment is the most cost-effective and is the slowest-growing portion of Medicare spending according to the most recent National Health Expenditures data from CMS.

AAHomecare is spearheading “Meek Week,” a grassroots campaign this week to increase cosponsors for Rep. Kendrick Meek’s bill, H.R. 3790, which would eliminate the Medicare “competitive” bidding program for home medical equipment. This is a critical time to meet with your members of Congress while they are back in their home districts and ask them to support the Meek bill.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are expected to be in their home districts for another week before the House resumes business on January 12. The Senate returns on January 19.
Officially, H.R. 3790 has 118 cosponsors so far – an impressive number, but far short of the number of supporters to make the impact we need to get this bill enacted into law.
You can help increase that number by putting a face on HME and meeting with your member of Congress or district staff in their local district office. Explain how the misguided bidding program will actually reduce competition in the home medical equipment sector, reduce choices available to seniors, and increase health care costs. By drastically cutting both reimbursement rates and number of HMEs allowed to participate in Medicare, the bidding program will cripple the nation’s homecare sector – the most affordable form of health care available.
Homecare is the most cost-effective form of care for both current Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and future beneficiaries, including the 78 million baby boomers who will prefer to stay at home with their loved ones.
You can find the phone number and location of every legislator’s district offices in the “Contact Me” section of each Member’s website at www.house.gov.
While there is no Senate companion bill to the Meek legislation, you should also contact your Senators’ district offices to briefly explain the importance of homecare in your state and emphasize that no further cuts should be made to durable medical equipment reimbursement rates.
Texas Congressman who have signed to H.R. 3790. These 7 have co-sponsored out of 32 in the state.

Ted Poe R
Ralph Hall R
Charles A. Gonzalez D
Ciro Rodriguez D
Solomon P. Ortiz D
Henry Cueller D
Eddie Bernice Johnson D
Please take the time to call your local Congressman. If you need some talking points, call me.
Thanks
Tom Polston