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Medical equipment quandary
From: Memphis Business Journal
CMS bidding process will put some out of business
Cole Epley
Local businesses specializing in sales and servicing of durable medical equipment and supplies are scrambling to find ways to keep their Medicare lines of business financially viable after July 1 or risk laying off employees — or even closing operations entirely.
That’s when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will implement a new competitive bidding program for suppliers in Memphis and 90 other Metropolitan Statistical Areas across the country.
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Suppliers, experts dispute savings claims from Medicare competitive bid program
Editor’s Note: The Congressional Budget Office’s Chief of Medicare Cost Estimates informed a conference sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the University of Maryland that the CMS bidding system would fail unless unless reformed. CMS has refused to fix a broken system leaving diabetes patients to face the consequences.
From: TribLive.com
By Alex Nixon
A controversial Medicare bidding program tested in Pittsburgh and eight other cities will be expanded across the country this year.
The government hails the program as a major money-saver because it requires medical-equipment suppliers to bid for contracts. But some economists, industry groups and suppliers say the program is flawed and is pushing companies out of business.
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CRE Actions to Curtail the Implementation of the CMS Competitive Bidding Program to Diabetic Supplies for Mail Order and In-pharmacy Sales.
Those readers interested in participating in the aforementioned program should contact Jim Tozzi at tozzi@thecre.com or by phone 202.265.2383.
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Medicare Bidding Process Slams Home Medical Equipment Providers With Arbitrary Reimbursement Rates
From: American Association for Homecare
Severe Industry Fall-Out Expected, as Stakeholders Rally Congress to Replace the Program, Protect Medicare Beneficiaries
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The plummeting reimbursement rates set by Medicare last week for Durable Medical Equipment (DME) demonstrate why its procurement system for home medical equipment is a defective process likely to produce troubling results. The bid program allows the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to impose arbitrary pricing on oxygen therapy, power wheelchairs, and other critical equipment and services for beneficiaries.
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“There is no way a supplier can obtain brand name testing supplies, employ the staff to fulfill reorders, bill Medicare, and maintain a sophisticated fulfillment center(s) at that rate.”
From: Where Are My Keys? (blog)
Know anyone that recieves mail-order diabetic suppies that is on Medicare?
Big changes are coming, and coming quickly:
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Stakeholders react: ‘These are suicide rates’
From: HME News
by: Leif Kothe
YARMOUTH, Maine – The steep cuts that CMS plans to implement as part of Round 2 of competitive bidding underscore the fatal flaws in the program, say industry stakeholders.
“The economists have said that it’s bid low or die, and I think these payment amounts reflect that,” said Cara Bachenheimer, senior vice president of government relations for Invacare.
Starting July 1, Round 2 payment amounts for certain HME will be, on average, 45% lower than the current fee schedule in 91 cities. For a separate national mail-order program, they will be, on average, 72% lower.
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Device-makers slam Medicare competitive bidding expansion
Editor’s Note: CRE has long warned about the expansion of un-competitive bidding.
From: Healthwatch/The Hill’s Healthcare Blog
By Elise Viebeck
The medical-device lobby is railing against a new expansion of Medicare’s competitive bidding program for durable equipment, a policy projected to save billions of dollars for beneficiaries and the Part B Trust Fund by 2022.
The Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) said that the expansion could deprive patients of their preferred medical tools and tests.
“The competitive bidding program is built in such a way that the lowest bid — which may not be the right bid — may compromise patient access to products best suited for their needs,” AdvaMed President Stephen Ubl said Thursday in a statement.
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CMS Announces Sharp Price Cut for Mail Order Diabetic Supplies
Editor’s Note: From the CMS Press Release, “Medicare beneficiaries across the country will save an average of 72 percent on diabetic testing supplies under a national mail-order program starting at the same time.”
From: CMS
CMS Announces DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Payment Amounts for the Round 2 and National Mail-Order Competitions
On January 30, 2013, CMS announced the single payment amounts for the Round 2 and national mail-order competitions of the Medicare Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics and Supplies (DMEPOS) Competitive Bidding Program.
For additional information:
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CSIHME acquired by NAIMES
From: Home Care Magazine
HALIFAX, Va., Jan. 28, 2013—The National Association of Independent Medical Equipment Suppliers (NAIMES) announces that it has acquired the Committee to Save Independent HME suppliers (CSIHME) and merged it into the national trade association. “We are pleased with this merger which will combine the resources of CSIHME with NAIMES,” according to NAIMES Chairman Wayne Sale. “This effectively doubles our resources and will improve the effectiveness of NAIMES as an advocate for its members in the independent supplier community.”
Sale also noted that the merger brings a renewed spirit of determination to the organization’s battle to replace the ill-fated national DME bidding process.
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Mandatory mail order? Seniors concerned
From: HME News
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A survey that suggests seniors are leery of mandatory mail-order pharmacy services may cast a long shadow on Medicare’s national mail-order program for diabetes supplies.
Respondents to the survey raised concerns about running out of medication, timeliness, and the possibility of medications getting lost in the mail or stolen.
“Mail order is not for everyone,” stated B. Douglas Hoey, NCPA CEO, in a press release. “In fact, consumers have said that it’s not for most people. Patients deserve a choice and they don’t like being told which pharmacy they have to use.”