Majority of Providers Want Out

Are you or someone you love a Medicare recipient? If so, you need to know this!

Homecaremag.com conducted a poll: "Will you bid in Round 2 of competitive bidding?"

A shocking 60 percent of Home Medical Equipment (HME) participants in HomeCare's March web poll said they are trying to sell or close their HME businesses before Round 2 of competitive bidding.

Here is how the responses broke out:
Yes: 13%
No: 10%
Haven't decided: 4%
Audits may put me out of business before Round 2 is implemented: 13%
I'm trying to sell/close my business before I have to: 60%

Here is a Competitive Bidding overview, courtesy of www.homecaremag.com:
The original DME competitive bidding program was signed into law on December 8, 2003, as part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). In April 2007, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the Medicare DMEPOS national competitive bidding program final rule and the first-round competitive bid areas and product categories.

After numerous problems were encountered during Round 1 of competitive bidding, the House and Senate voted in July 2008 to overturn President George W. Bush's veto of H.R. 6331. The Medicare package included a temporary delay of the DMEPOS competitive bidding program to allow time for critical process improvements and other reforms to bidding and HME policy. (View a summary of the competitive bidding provisions in H.R. 6331.)

During President Bush's last month in office, his administration issued an interim final rule that instructed CMS to restart the competitive bidding process, which is now commonly known as the Round 1 Rebid. The newly-elected President Barack Obama temporarily delayed all rules issued during the previous administration's final month, but this rule was allowed to become final after the 60-day delay expired in April 2009.

In August 2009, CMS announced the timeline for the Round 1 Rebid. (View a timeline with deadlines for competitive bidding.) On October 13, 2009, Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., introduced a bill to repeal DMEPOS competitive bidding. However, CMS opened the 60-day bid window on time for the Round 1 rebid of Medicare DMEPOS competitive bidding.

•Visit the CBIC Web site for further information on the Round 1 rebid.
•Read an overview of Medicare's DMEPOS Competitive Bidding on CMS' Web site.
•View the final rule on the Competitive Acquisition for Certain Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS).

Click our previous post Medicare Competitive Bidding and What it Means to You for more information.