Home Health & Hospice Week

Bid items may vary for different bid areas.

Durable medical equipment suppliers soon will see the shape of things to come under competitive bidding.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will issue its proposed rule on competitive bidding "very soon," promised Laurence Wilson, director of CMS' Chronic Care Policy Group, in a March 27 session at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice's annual policy conference in Washington, DC.

The competitive bidding model "is a big change for Medicare," Wilson noted.

The bidding rule will lay out the processes for bidding and pricing of bid items, Wilson said. It will also include "details and concepts" behind the bidding process.

The Medicare Modernization Act requires bidding to begin in 10 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in 2007, but not every MSA will necessarily bid on the same items, Wilson said. CMS has some discretion in what items are up for bid in which MSAs.

Doubts: With the proposed rule coming so close to the 2007 deadline, observers wonder whether bidding will really start on time.