THE SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVE TO MEDICARE'S BIDDING PROGRAM.

UPDATE: Thank you to Congressmen Thompson and Braley and the 81 members of Congress who cosigned the letter asking CMS Administrator Tavenner to stop the expansion of the Medicare bidding program. The letter received tremendous Congressional support and sent a strong message to Administrator Tavenner.

Both providers and patients need to speak up and tell their Representatives in Congress that they need to ACT NOW to start repairing the damage that Medicare's badly mismanaged bidding program has caused. It's time for them to join 171 of their colleagues who are H.R. 1717 cosponsors!

Congress may be distracted by other issues, but we have to keep them focused on H.R. 1717, the Medicare DMEPOS Market Pricing Program Act of 2013. The bill was introduced to the House thanks to the bipartisan efforts of Rep. Tom Price, M.D. (R-Ga.) and Rep. John Larson(D-Conn.) The two Congressmen, senior members of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced it to prevent CMS from implementing Round 2 of the controversial national bidding program and to replace it with the market pricing program. You can find a current list of H.R. 1717 cosponsors here.

If your Representative was a cosponsor of H.R. 6490, MPP legislation in the last Congress (see list here), please contact him or her about this new legislation as soon as possible. For those members of Congress who did not cosponsor the legislation in the last Congress, the introduction of H.R. 1717 gives them another opportunity to support a positive, responsible, bipartisan bill that will help homecare patients nationwide. You can send a message to your legislators about the need for MPP with AAHomecare's Take Action Center.

Medicare's bidding program is having an extremely negative impact on both HME businesses and their patients. If you are an HME company and would like to tell us about problems you are having with the program, send an email to CBRound2Problems@aahomecare.org. You can also use this email address for problems related to Round 1 and the national mail order program for diabetic supplies.

If you are a Medicare patient, or the caregiver, family, or doctor of one, please call 1-800-404-8702. This toll-free hotline is staffed by People for Quality Care. With your permission, the staff will share your complaint with Congress and patch your call to the congressional switchboard where you can tell your Representative and Senators just how you feel. If you'd rather make a complaint without connecting to the switchboard, they welcome those calls as well.

BACKGROUND

AAHomecare, working with the HME sector and auction experts, developed a legislative proposal to fix the fundamental flaws in the current bid system.

Congress’ objective in requiring Medicare to use competitive bidding to establish payment amounts for home medical equipment (HME) was to reduce Medicare and beneficiary expenditures, and ensure that beneficiaries have access to quality items and service.

This objective cannot be met because the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has designed a program that does not hold bidders accountable, does not ensure that bidders are qualified to provide the products in the bid markets, and produces bid rates that are financially unsustainable. 244 economic experts from around the world agree that the current Medicare bidding program is unsustainable. It will create significant barriers to access and will destroy the HME infrastructure upon which our seniors and people with disabilities rely.

AAHomecare's initiative is known as the Market Pricing Program. The proposal would require CMS to make some fundamental changes to ensure a financially sustainable program. It uses an auction system to establish market-based prices around the country. These changes are consistent with Congress’ original intent: to create a program that is based on competition and market prices, while maintaining beneficiary access to quality items and services.

Read a section-by-section summary of the Market Pricing Program (AAHomecare members only content).