HCFA Selects Winning Bidders for San Antonio Competitive Bidding Project

Baltimore

Continuing to herald competition and competitive bidding as sure-fire ways to reduce Medicare costs, the Health Care Financing Administration said it has selected the winning bidders for its San Antonio demonstration scheduled to begin Feb. 1. The agency did not, however, reveal the names of those bidders.

HCFA reviewed 179 bids from 79 suppliers, basing winning-bidder selection on quality and price, officials said. Using information from those bids, HCFA said savings per product category are estimated to be 17 percent for oxygen supplies, 25 percent for hospital beds, 21 percent for manual wheelchairs, 18 percent for orthotics and 26 percent for inhalation drugs. The average total cost savings is estimated to be 20 percent compared with the existing fee schedule for medical supplies in Texas. The Polk County, Fla., demonstration project yielded average total cost savings of 17 percent, HCFA noted.

"These results show that competition can work for Medicare beneficiaries," said Michael Hash, acting administrator of HCFA, the federal agency that runs Medicare. "In the short run, beneficiaries in these Texas counties [Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe] will receive quality supplies and services at more reasonable prices. In the long run, we hope that all of the 39 million Americans who rely on Medicare will share in these types of benefits.

"Competition helps Medicare beneficiaries receive quality medical supplies at fair market prices," Hash continued. "Old and inflexible laws have forced Medicare to spend more for equipment than market prices or common sense should allow. That must change."