Dear Congressman: Home Care Works

ATLANTA — CMS released a timeline for Round 2 of competitive bidding at a recent meeting of the Program Advisory and Oversight Committee, and a provision in the nation's newly signed health care reform law adds 21 cities for a total of 100 in the program. With these new developments, you might think optimism was at a low ebb. In fact, the opposite is true among HME advocates.

When it comes to getting their federal representatives signed on as cosponsors to H.R. 3790, Rep. Kendrick Meek's (D-Fla.) bill to repeal the bidding program, providers are just getting more creative.

In Warner Robins, Ga., father-and-son team Ronald Street and Scott Street of Street Home Medical took matters into their own hands in the form of a sign in front of their business, which is located on a busy highway.

The Streets were having a difficult time getting Rep. Jim Marshall to sign on to the bill. Marshall's district is not in either Rounds 1 or 2 of the bidding program, and the conservative Blue Dog Democrat had not responded to letters from the company's employees or to a visit from members of the Georgia Association of Medical Equipment Services on AAHomecare's March 3 lobby day in Washington.

So the Streets put up a sign in front of their business that read: "Dear Congressman, home care works. Support H.R. 3790."

The Streets took a picture of the sign and sent it to Marshall's legislative aide. On the fourth day after the sign went up, they received a call from the aide with news that Marshall had signed on.

"He listened," said Scott Street. "After we got word, we changed the sign and thanked him for his support. It is getting very hairy with competitive bidding, but I think we are getting momentum. I think others will follow Marshall. I just hope with health care reform going through that this is not going to get lost."

Diana Guth, RRT, believes the best hope to repeal competitive bidding lies in portraying the program as a job-killer.

"I'm hoping members of Congress will gain the wisdom and understand that most, if not all DME companies, will be forced out of business, leaving the beneficiaries high and dry if this ill-conceived plan goes forward," said Guth, owner of Home Respiratory Care in Los Angeles. "This will be a tragic, true-life Humpty Dumpty scenario. There will be no winners. The excluded bidders are out of the Medicare game entirely. The included bidders will rapidly find that their low bids will not generate enough revenue to remain in business …