Bid News Blog

Inside CMS

Medical equipment suppliers may urge lawmakers to use health care reform as a vehicle to dictate how CMS proceeds on round 1 rebids in the controversial durable medical equipment competitive bidding programs if the agency doesn’t address suppliers’ concerns, an industry source told Inside CMS. Calculating capacity and demand within DME competitive bidding areas (CBAs) remained a contentious issue between CMS and the supplier industry following the first Program Advisory Oversight Committee (PAOC) meeting, held June 4.

(Medical News Today)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is preparing to revive competitive bidding program for durable medical equipment that industry members helped sink last summer when it was originally scheduled to take effect, CQ HealthBeat reports. The agency had anticipated a 26 percent savings for wheelchairs, oxygen tanks and other pieces of equipment through the program. But a lobbying group for the suppliers, the American Association for Homecare, successfully urged Congress to shut down the program before it went into effect.