Competitive Bidding:
Suppliers Pull Off Bidding Delay
Published on Wed Jun 18, 2008
Uphill battle won, but contract bidders are left in the lurch.
Durable medical equipment bidding will stop in its tracks thanks to a new Medicare law, but that isn't good news for everyone.
On July 15, Congress voted to override a veto from President Bush and enact Medicare budget legislation that includes an 18-month delay to the first round of competitive bidding. Suppliers had to accept a 9.5 percent cut to bid items in exchange for the delay.
The new law also mandates bidding reforms when the program does finally take effect. Those reforms include requiring an accreditation date for suppliers and closing a widely criticized loophole that allows winning bidders to contract with unaccredited sub-contractors, notes the American Association for Homecare.
The new law, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Provider Act (MIPPA) also repeals the requirement for oxygen equipment ownership to transfer to beneficiaries after 36 months, notes the Council for Quality Respiratory Care, a trade group representing large oxygen companies.
What now?: "Medicare beneficiaries may use any Medicare-approved supplier for Durable Medical Equipment," the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in a fact sheet about MIPPA released July 16. "If a beneficiary changed suppliers when this new program started (July 1, 2008), they can either continue to use the new supplier or choose another supplier."
Rates effective prior to July 1 will once again be in effect, CMS adds.
Stay tuned: "Information on payment rates and claims processing will be communicated to DME suppliers in the coming days," CMS promises in its MIPPA fact sheet. The agency will send letters to Medicare households in the 10 bidding areas in two weeks informing them of the delay. Bidding Complaints Quickly Piled Up Industry observers were held in suspense over competitive bidding's fate when the Senate failed to vote on the bill delaying the program on June 26 (see related story). The bidding program took effect as scheduled July 1, with many complaints quickly pouring in.
Hospitals and physicians in Florida had significant trouble securing oxygen for their discharged patients, they told AAHomecare.
For example: Dr. Natarajan Rajagopalan, chief of staff at a hospital in Miami-Dade County, "found that none of the companies we called carry liquid oxygen systems," he said in a letter to Rep. Mel Martinez (R-FL).
"Typically oxygen is delivered to a patient in hours not days," Dr. Rajagopalan wrote. "That policy will create countless problems for our hospital and the other hospitals in the area. We cannot wait days for equipment to be delivered to the hospital or to the patient's home before they are discharged."
Dr. Seth Gottlieb of Miami reported a similar problem to Martinez, AAHomecare says. "The competitive bidding program ... is only a few days old and it has already [...]
