Patient advocacy groups, home medical associations call for end to Medicare competitive bidding program

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Jul 17 2010American Association for Homecare

In Open Letter to Congressional Leaders, 58 Patient Advocacy Groups and Home Medical Groups Call for End to Bidding Program

In a letter signed by 58 patient advocacy groups and home medical equipment associations, the American Association for Homecare urged Congress to pass H.R. 3790, a bill to repeal the Medicare competitive bidding program for durable medical equipment in a budget-neutral manner. The bill currently has 252 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. View the letter.

"Our national, state and local organizations believe that this program is fundamentally flawed and will create significant obstacles to patient care while threatening the homecare infrastructure for our nation's seniors and disabled," wrote Tyler J. Wilson, president of the American Association for Homecare in the open letter to Congress. "The home medical equipment (HME) sector is dedicated to working with Congress to ensure H.R. 3790 will replace the troubled bidding program with a series of payment reductions for home medical equipment providers, ensuring that CBO-projected savings are met."

The Medicare bidding program uses economic coercion to force homecare providers to submit unsustainable bids necessary to win a contract that allows the opportunity to continue serving Medicare beneficiaries. Ultimately, the below-market rates achieved through this bidding program will force thousands of home medical equipment businesses to close, reducing competition in the long term and reducing seniors' and patients' access to care and choice of providers.

The program is scheduled to be implemented in January 2011 in nine of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. – Charlotte, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dallas, Kansas City, Miami, Orlando, Pittsburgh, and Riverside, Calif.

Physicians, clinicians, and hospital case managers agree, and predict that Medicare's competitive bidding program will disrupt patient's continuum of care by restricting their access to a majority of suppliers.

Medicare already faces the daunting challenge of preparing for the more than 70 million baby boomers who are about to become Medicare eligible. As America works to address its growing elderly population, the bidding program will shut out nearly 90 percent of homecare providers who currently serve the country's Medicare beneficiaries.

With strong bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, H.R. 3790 would end the Medicare competitive bidding program for durable medical equipment in a budget-neutral manner, achieving the very same projected Medicare savings as the bidding program.

The letter reiterated providers' concerns that the bidding program will only increase the nation's growing healthcare costs in the long run. By hindering beneficiaries' ability to stay home with trusted medical products and services, the bidding program will force patients to seek more costly hospital visits or nursing homes for care.

Signatories called for passage of the bill to eliminate the bidding program, ensuring preservation of high-quality homecare services and equipment for patients, and preventing the needless closing of HME businesses across the country, which would result in the loss of jobs in an already difficult economy.

Organizations Supporting H.R. 3790, the Bill to Repeal the Medicare Bidding Program for Home Medical Equipment and Services: