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HHS Likely to "Vastly Expand" Medicare
Competitive Bidding to Other Health Sectors
WASHINGTON, May
10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Medicare's competitive
bidding program for Durable Medical Equipment can easily be applied to
in-pharmacy diabetic supplies, laboratory services, prescription drugs and
even physicians. Providers of all types of medical equipment, supplies and
services should recognize that CMS's fatally-flawed "competitive"
bidding program can and will be applied to their own practice areas. Secretary
Sebelius has already announced that HHS will "vastly expand the use of
competitive bidding...." In expanding the program, the Secretary
ignored a Congressional Budget Office warning that "If they [HHS] don't
change the mechanism they use, I think there is a high probability of failure
in the near future. There is near certainty of failure sometime down the
road." HHS'
competitive bidding mechanism is to select winning bidders based on the
companies' non-binding promises. The
Center for Regulatory Effectiveness has released a detailed analysis showing
why the Medicare bidding program is bound for failure. CRE has submitted it
analysis to the White House to seek its assistance in stopping the negative
effect the competitive bidding program has on seniors and its impact on
decreasing employment. CRE's
analysis is available on their Competitive Bidding Interactive Public Docket https://www.thecre.com/blog/2012/05/cms-is-likely-to-expand-their-defective-competitive-bidding-system-to-other-health-sectors/ HHS'
immediate goal is to expand the DME competitive bidding from fewer than ten
cities to virtually the entire country. The expansion is underway even
though HHS' own data indicates that the program is harming seniors. An
academician analyzing HHS' competitive bidding data concluded that the
agency-documented decline in DME utilization leads to "a higher risk of
death, a higher frequency of ER visits and hospitalization, and longer
hospital stays." As
health care budgets become tighter, greater federal use of competitive
bidding is expected. The
Medicare competitive bidding program operates by drastically reducing the
number of qualified DME suppliers. Only the handful of firms picked by
HHS are permitted to provide Medicare patients with in-home equipment
and services. Other companies have the choice of being taken over or going
out of business. All
health care sectors have a vested interest in ensuring that the DME
competitive bidding program is vetted before being expanded to other sectors. SOURCE
The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness |
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