CRE Applauds White House Announcement of Plan for “A Simpler, Smarter Regulatory System” – Asks for Redress of Job-Killing CMS Program

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness welcomes the Obama Administration’s plan “to create a 21st-century regulatory system” including “an unprecedented government-wide review to eliminate tens of millions of hours in annual red-tape, and billions of dollars in regulatory costs…”  CRE will further congratulate the Administration when the plan yields tangible success.

As Jim Tozzi of CRE’s Board of Advisor’s recently noted at gathering honoring the 30^th anniversary of the White House’s office for regulatory review, OIRA-the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, “Washington is littered with Executive Orders that never got off the ground.”  Unfortunately, the plan components are top down, not bottom up. There is little input from stakeholders other than perfunctory requests for comments.

Of particular concern, there is an existing CMS rule on competitive bidding for Durable Medical Equipment that is costing the loss not only of a great number of jobs, based upon a gaming system that virtually every gaming authority says is flawed, but the virtual destroying an entire industry that is dominated by small businesses.

 CRE attempts to have the matter examined has been opposed by CMS. In fact, CRE has supported court action in an attempt to have CMS release their underlying financial model.

 The White House should solicit greater stakeholder involvement in the new regulatory review system by encouraging affected parties to file substantive Data Quality Act petitions which the agencies must address in a defined time period. OMB has the statutory authority to review such petitions.

More information about the deep flaws and lack of transparency in CMS’s competitive bidding system may be found here.