Medicare-approved medical equipment suppliers in nine communities will have 60 days to submit bids for the round one re-bid of the durable medical equipment competitive bidding program.
“Competitive bidding is an essential tool to help Medicare beneficiaries pay appropriately for high quality healthcare items and services furnished by Medicare-approved suppliers,” said Jonathan Blum, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Center for Medicare Management. “We worked closely with stakeholders and members of the Program Advisory and Oversight Committee ... to help us implement the program with benefits for patients, taxpayers and the entire healthcare system.”
CMS has begun accepting bids from accredited and bonded medical equipment suppliers after modifying the program and conducting supplier outreach and education efforts.
Currently, 93 percent of all medical equipment suppliers across the country – including those in the competitive bidding areas – have met Medicare’s accreditation requirements.
Changes made to the competitive bidding rule include:
- An early comprehensive bidder education program that began in August to help suppliers understand the bid submission and evaluation processes.
- A user-friendly bid submission process that provides a new on-line bidding system, upgraded request for bids instructions and a special process for suppliers to have their financial bid documents reviewed for completeness.
- Enhanced scrutiny of bidders that includes up-front licensure verification, accreditation of subcontractors and bidder disclosure of subcontractors.
- An updated bid evaluation process that requires suppliers to meet financial standards and evaluates bidders’ capacity and expansion plans to ensure that there are enough suppliers to provide beneficiaries with ready access to quality items and services in the nine areas.
- Negative pressure wound therapy items and Group 3 complex rehabilitative power wheelchairs will be excluded from the bidding items list.
“We expect that these and other refinements will result in the selection of quality contract suppliers offering a choice of products to beneficiaries at a substantial savings,” said Blum.
With the exception of Puerto Rico, the round one re-bid will occur in the same areas as the initial round one:
- Cincinnati-Middletown (Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana)
- Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor (Ohio)
- Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord (North and South Carolina)
- Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (Texas)
- Kansas City (Mississippi and Kansas)
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach (Florida)
- Orlando (Florida)
- Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania)
- Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario (California)