WASHINGTON — Reps. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Mike Rogers, R-Mich., have introduced the Medicare Access to Diabetes Supplies Act (H.R. 5235) to exempt diabetes supplies furnished by small community pharmacies from DMEPOS competitive bidding.
"The current competitive bidding program favors larger health care providers at the expense of smaller ones," Bruce Roberts, executive vice president and CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association, said in a statement about the bill. According to the NCPA, small community pharmacies are currently classified by the Small Business Administration as having annual sales of $7 million or less.
A major concern about the Medicare bidding program, the NCPA said, is that small pharmacies, particularly those in underserved rural and urban areas, would be underbid "and ultimately forced out of the program by larger suppliers that have no local presence but could always offer Medicare a better price, even if the quality was questionable. Consequently, community pharmacies and other comparably sized providers have problems winning contracts."
While 73 percent of community pharmacies sell DEMPOS, according to the NCPA, "it constitutes only a small fraction of their total sales. As a consequence, many community pharmacies will either limit the amount of or stop offering DMEPOS rather than completing the time-consuming and expensive competitive bidding process."
The ramifications for seniors "are not only inconvenience but potentially health compromising," the NCPA statement said.
"Reps. Welch and Rogers offer a common-sense legislative solution by exempting pharmacies of a certain size from this requirement, which is why we call on Congress to roll up its sleeves and pass it as soon as possible," Roberts said.
See thomas.loc.gov for the full text of H.R. 5235.
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