Bidding process for medical durable goods delayed until April

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The bidding process to supply durable medical goods to Medicare recipients, set to begin Tuesday, has been delayed until April 18, according to a release from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The delay is meant to give “officials the opportunity for further review of the issues of law and policy raised by the rule,” the announcement stated.

In 2003, Congress mandated competitive bidding among suppliers of ten types of medical equipment, including wheelchairs and oxygen equipment, to set the prices that Medicare would pay for this equipment. Competitive bidding was supposed to save Medicare $1 billion annually, once it was fully phased in.

Results of the first round of bidding — which included suppliers to residents of the Cleveland and Cincinnati areas — took effect briefly in July 2008.

But equipment suppliers and their advocates contended that the the bidding was so fraught with errors and inequities, that it would put legions of small suppliers out of business. So Congress required CMS to throw out results of the first bid and to do it again.

The rebidding process has been narrowed to eight types of medical equipment — excluding negative pressure wound treatment systems and complex, rehabilitative wheelchairs — in the same regions, except for Puerto Rico. Mechanisms to correct supplier inequities in the first bid are to be included in the rebid.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must begin the rebidding process this year. (Hat tip Medicare Update)