Features
Quality Standards Dominate Competitive Bidding Meeting
Baltimore
For months, a panel advising CMS on DME competitive bidding has stressed that supplier quality standards are key to a successful program. At the last Program Advisory and Oversight Committee meeting, panel members said CMS had listened well.
When the agency met with the 22-member panel Feb. 28 through March 2, it devoted nearly an entire day to discussing quality standards. CMS is expected to release a draft this summer detailing exactly what these standards will be.
“CMS is making a good-faith effort to implement quality standards,” said Cara Bachenheimer, vice president of government relations for Elyria, Ohio-based Invacare Corp. and a member of the PAOC. “Most of us have been arguing very strongly this needs to happen — or the bottom is going to fall out.”
The Medicare Modernization Act mandates that all suppliers, not just those taking part in competitive bidding, meet certain requirements to participate in the Medicare program.
Bachenheimer and other panel members say that if quality standards do not precede the bidding program, companies with the lowest level of service and lowest cost component could win, leaving players with higher standards and service levels as losers.
North Carolina-based RTI (Research Triangle Institute), a contractor assisting CMS with program implementation, used materials from current accrediting bodies to put together a preview of what the quality standards might look like.
The overview included company standards such as financial management, competency of staff, safety and management of patient records.
“[RTI] did their homework,” Bachenheimer said. “They hit all the key areas.”
Important points that need to be considered include looking at the supplier as a health care provider and at business operations, according to committee member Asela Cuervo, a Washington attorney representing the American Association for Homecare. “Is there an annual budget? Are employees given training? These are things you would expect to see in a good solid business,” she explained.
