ATLANTA--Web site glitches and lack of key information have delayed some providers' attempts to bid in CMS' national competitive bidding project--and the 60-day clock is still ticking, HME stakeholders said last week.

Product category bids in the 10 initial competitive bidding areas must be submitted by July 13.

"I have absolutely gotten quite a number of providers who have complained," said Rose Schafhauser, executive director of the Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services. And, she added, "those are just the ones who called."

Providers trying to submit bids have been frustrated by trouble getting registered, a Web site that was down for days, user ID numbers and passwords that don't work and an inability to e-mail the site for help because it won't recognize their passwords.

At a competitive bidding forum during AAHomecare's Washington Legislative Conference June 5, providers reeled off a similar laundry list of problems with the system and detailed additional difficulties getting answers to questions.

Cynthia Wilson, general manager of UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) Home Medical Equipment, complained that because the $6-billion health system is so big, she could not obtain a credit report for her company, one of the bid submission requirements. What's more, she pointed out, two of CMS' three designated credit reporting facilities only provide reports for individuals, not businesses.

"We keep submitting this issue" to the CBIC, Wilson said, "but no one is able to get us a straight answer."

Wilson also said she needed help working through the 5 percent common ownership rule and had a problem with the requirement to report finances on a calendar-year basis. "We work on a fiscal year," she said.

Wilson also reported the problems to Herb Kuhn, CMS acting deputy administrator, during an appearance at the AAHomecare conference. "According to statistics, we are the 18th largest Medicare oxygen provider in the United States," she told Kuhn, "but we're locked out of the bidding because of these technicalities."

At a bidders' conference on Wednesday, the CBIC announced it had added Dun & Bradstreet to the approved list of credit reporting companies and that financial reporting on a fiscal year basis was acceptable. (See "CMS Hosts Competitive Bidding Teleconferences" in this issue.)

"What we are finding--and, unfortunately, I don't think it's a surprise--gets back to this whole deal that [CMS] is rushing implementation," said Don Clayback, senior vice president of networks for The Med Group. "Because of a rush to the bidding process, they've started the structure but they're kind of learning as they go.

"While the people are trying to be helpful on the [phone helpline], it's been my experience that if it's not something very basic that can be read from a script, then you're referred to someone else and you have to leave a voice mail.

"Because of the complexity of competitive bidding," Clayback continued, "it's going to be a difficult process under the best of circumstances. Given the fact that some information just isn't available yet and that the response time to questions has been less than what they promised, it's adding to the stress for some providers."

Representatives of the CBIC apologized during a bidders' conference last week for site problems that prohibited providers from submitting bids. They said those problems should now be resolved.

But Miriam Lieber, president of Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based Lieber Consulting, called the bidding process "a landmine," noting that several of her clients had tried to submit bids but were unsuccessful.

In one instance, a downloaded form called for the top three HCPCS codes in the product category, but Lieber and her client couldn't access the information because the CBIC site was down. The CBIC helpline personnel couldn't tell them what the top three codes were and referred them to the Web site. Said a frustrated Lieber, "We can't get online to find out ourselves, [they] can't give it to me over the phone, so what am I supposed to do?"

For her client to bid only two product categories took two days to get through, Lieber said. "A lot of it has to do with the HCPCS codes that aren't exactly right. Some manufacturers don't have pricing, so if you don't carry a product, you have to be able to get a price. That makes it hard for a guy to bid."

In any case, she continued, information about the codes and other data came late in the game. "They released those top three codes after Memorial Day. Last time I checked, it was a 60-day bidding window. If I [wanted] to bid Form B, it wasn't there. How is that a 60-day bidding window?" she questioned.

Such difficulties prompted MAMES to enlist the aid of state Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Schafhauser said.

"Our whole push through the senator's office was trying to get this thing delayed and trying to get [CMS] to understand all the issues that providers are facing," Schafhauser said.