WASHINGTON--In a move championed by industry advocates, on Thursday, U.S. Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., introduced a bill designed to "assure access to durable medical equipment under the Medicare program."

H.R. 1845, the "Medicare Durable Medical Equipment Access Act of 2007," is co-sponsored by Reps. David Hobson, R-Ohio, and Mike Ross, D-Ark. The proposed legislation is a new version of the Hobson-Tanner bill introduced last year, which failed to make it through congressional channels before the end of the term.

"We made a few minor changes, but the bill is essentially the same as the one submitted last year," said Randy Ford, Tanner's communications director. "Hopefully, this is the year we'll have some legislative success with it."

The Tanner-Hobson bill is aimed at ensuring accessibility for Medicare beneficiaries and fairness to HME providers under the impending competitive bidding project. The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 mandates competitive bidding, and CMS is scheduled to implement the program this year.

According to its language, H.R. 1845 would amend the current mandate so that any HME provider could participate in Medicare "at the selected award price so long as they submit bids at less than the fee schedule amount otherwise applicable to the items and they otherwise comply with applicable program requirements." In other words, the bill would allow any qualified provider who has submitted a bid below the current allowable to continue doing Medicare business.

The bill also calls for a complete analysis of the impact of competitive bidding once it has been fully implemented in the first 10 cities. That analysis would include impact on beneficiary access to quality products and impact on providers of items and services covered under the project.

In addition, the bill would prohibit expansion of the competitive bidding program or the application of the bid rates to non-bid areas unless specifically authorized by Congress after the date of H.R. 1845's enactment.

The American Association for Homecare praised the re-introduction of the bill and pledged to "vigorously seek" more cosponsors.

"The home care community applauds the leadership of these congressmen," said Tyler Wilson, AAHomecare president. "The current law for competitive bidding threatens to reduce access to care for home care patients served by the Medicare program. The new bill would help to ensure that home care providers can continue to compete in a fair program."

The text of the bill should be available shortly at http://thomas.loc.gov.