Competitive Bidding:
Campaign To Repeal Bidding Hits Roadblocks
Published on Wed Apr 21, 2010
Repeal would cost $9.6 billion, CBO says. Durable medical equipment suppliers desperately want an end to competitive bidding, but it will come at a high price -- if at all. Suppliers had hoped the DME bidding repeal contained in House bill H.R. 3790 would be budget neutral, but the legislation actually would cost $9.6 billion over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office recently estimated. Suppliers continue to pursue non-legislative alternatives to stop bidding as well. On May 11, the Texas Alliance for Home Care Services and Dallas Oxygen Corp. filed a lawsuit to stop the program. The suit says the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services violated rulemaking notice and comment procedures regarding the program's financial standards. In an April Open Door Forum, CMS's Joel Kaiser said CMS would not make the details of the standards public to avoid manipulation by bidders (see [...]