Industry Notes:
CMS Announces Delay To Round 2 Of DME Competitive Bidding
Published on Tue Mar 08, 2011
Competitive bidding for durable medical equipment may take a bit longer to come to your area, if it hasn't already arrived. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced a six-month delay to Round 2 of DME competitive bidding at the Program Advisory and Oversight Committee (PAOC) meeting April 4. Round 1 of bidding went into effect Jan. 1 in nine metro areas. Round 2 will expand the program to 91 metro areas. Under the delay, contract winners will be announced in Spring 2013 and the prices and contracts would start in the Summer of 2013, notes the American Association for Homecare. The delay is welcome news for suppliers and their clients, but "the truth is that no matter how CMS tries to tweak its competitive bidding program, it will continue to be a fundamentally bad deal for our nation's seniors and small businesses," insists Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) in [...]