Competitive Bidding
I work for a locally owned medical equipment company in Cleveland, Ohio and I am deeply concerned over the Medicare Competitive Bidding program. I worked with my company on the first round of creating a bid and found the system confused and flawed. I have followed closely to the progress that has been going on with establishing new rules for the next round of bidding. This next round of bidding is shapping up to be more of the same. This competitive bidding process is not based on any medical evidence that states that it will help any of its beneficiaries. It is based on limited data of limited procedure codes in selected parts of the country. On the contrary, Medicare beneficiaries will suffer at the hands of unqualified companies and it will put 90% of small DME companies out of business. All this, for limited monetary savings that may happen with a program based on competitive bidding. Competitive Bidding must be eliminated.
