Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare's DME competitive bidding machine is roaring to life, but suppliers aim to pull the plug on it.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is conducting an "intensive supplier outreach and education effort" that includes an Aug. 19 special Open Door Forum on the topic and a new MLN Matters article outlining the round one rebid details. Durable medical equipment suppliers can sign up for bidding e-mail updates online at www.dmecompetitivebid.com and use a special toll-free help line (1-877-577-5331) that CMS has established to assist bidders with questions and concerns.

The American Association for Homecare has unveiled an economic study, "Analysis of the Economic Impact of Competitive Bidding on the DME Market: A One Year Update," by Brian O'Roark, Professor of Economics at Robert Morris University. The study exposes "major faults" in the program including quality of care issues, the trade group says.

"Competitive bidding may work for staplers and hammers, but not in a health care sector like home medical equipment," Rob Brant, general manager of City Medical Services in North Miami Beach, Fla., a round-one bidding area, says in an AAHomecare release. Suppliers are "called upon to work with doctors, hospitals and nursing agencies, to properly and safely train, and to provide products and services so patients can live independently in their homes -- and not in facilities like nursing homes."