The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) has provided OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) with massive and uncontradicted evidence demonstrating that the CMS competitive bidding program violated the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), see our comments to OMB here, our comments to CMS here, a peer reviewed analysis of the CMS program by CalTech researchers here, and a letter from over 240 economists to White House condemning the program here.
As the Congressional Budget Office and hundreds of independent experts have explained, without major reforms, the current CMS bidding program will fail. Thus, OMB’s refusal to discharge their statutory responsibilities under the PRA leaves Medicare beneficiaries who depend on life-sustaining home medical equipment and services with no option other than seeking relief from Congress. For these reasons, the DME community and their families should support passage of H.R.6490.
The Congress vested OMB with the authority to stop job killing ICR’s; OMB refusal to discharge their responsibilities requires the same small businesses who are loosing jobs to mount a costly effort to get legislation passed to address their govenment-induced hardships.