Alexandria, Va. The American Association for Homecare has joined other health care stakeholders in forming a coalition to explore the repeal of competitive

Alexandria, Va.

The American Association for Homecare has joined other health
care stakeholders in forming a coalition to explore the repeal of
competitive bidding.

The Coalition to Ensure Beneficiary Access will “reach out
to a wide array of patient and provider stakeholders to demonstrate
broad support for a repeal of competitive bidding,” the
association said.

An initial meeting of the group included representatives from
the National Association for the Support of Long Term Care, the
Health Industry Distributors Association, several industry
providers and manufacturers, and the ITEM Coalition, whose members
include more than 70 health care advocacy organizations.

“AAHomecare has consistently questioned the merits of
competitive bidding and expressed concerns about its effects on
patient access to home care and its impact on small
providers,” said Tyler Wilson, association president.
“We also question whether competitive bidding will produce
the savings for Medicare that have been projected.”

Because DME competitive bidding was enacted into law as part of
the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, Congress must pass another
law to repeal it.

CMS is ramping up its bidding program now and will name 10 MSAs
where bidding will begin later this year. The program will expand
to another 80 areas, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago,
in 2009.

The coalition effort will focus on five principles:

Accreditation and quality standards are critically important and
a positive step forward. The Medicare program has taken the
necessary steps to combat fraud and abuse and to ensure that
beneficiaries have access to high-quality DMEPOS items.

  • Beneficiaries lose under competitive bidding. The administrative
    process of bidding within select regions for select products will
    result in reduced availability of products to individuals in
    certain areas of the country. If fully implemented, beneficiaries
    would be the ultimate losers.

  • Competitive bidding will create a bureaucracy. In order to
    implement competitive bidding, CMS will also construct a
    bureaucracy, and the full costs are not taken into consideration.
    These expenses may negate any potential savings of competitive
    bidding.

  • Small businesses will be harmed. Small businesses will be unable
    to be as price-competitive as larger companies. CMS also stated
    that as few as two suppliers could be selected for a product
    category in a competitive bid area, which would result in further
    erosion of the small business community.

  • There is a better approach to competitive bidding. The coalition
    will pursue an approach that secures savings, foregoes a new
    federal bureaucracy and protects beneficiaries and small
    businesses.