Countdown to Change

The countdown to change has begun. In a matter of months, competitive bidding for durable medical equipment products will get underway in 10 of the nation's largest metropolitan statistical areas. And that, in addition to supplier quality standards and assorted other changes instituted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will in all likelihood turn the home medical equipment market on its ear.

By January 2007, it will be a brave new HME world out there, industry seers say, and it will take courage, flexibility and business savvy to survive in it. The question is, are you ready?

If you're like most providers, the answer is no. It's hard to know how to prepare for such major changes, especially when CMS has yet (at least, as of press time for this issue) to release specific details about them.

“We do not know where competitive bidding will start, what products will be included, how it will be administered and all the other unresolved issues … It's difficult to prepare for something when we know so little about its operational details, the products that will be included and the geographic areas that will be included first,” notes Cara Bachenheimer, vice president, government relations, for Elyria, Ohio-based Invacare Corp.

The uncertainty of it all is enough to prompt a provider to make like an ostrich and hide its head in the sand. This, however, is not a recommended move, says Neil Caesar, president of the Health Law Center, a national health law practice based in Greenville, S.C. “When an ostrich does this, it exposes another sensitive portion of its anatomy,” he points out.

Bruce Brothis, president of Allegient Billing & Consulting in Elizabeth, Colo., is even more direct. “Do not ignore competitive bidding,” he stresses. “It will not go away.”

Don Clayback, senior vice president of networks for The Med Group, Lubbock, Texas, cautions against considering this year prior to competitive bidding as a waiting period. “The wait-and-see attitude is a trap,” he says. “There's a limit to what you can be doing, but there are significant things you can be doing.”

Indeed, adds Caesar, “Inventory depth, solvency, the ability to deliver sufficient quantity of product competently — these things can be shored up now by providers.”

In other words, seize the moment to make a better business.