MedPAC Could Examine DME Reimbursement
WASHINGTON–At a Sept. 4 meeting, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission said it might examine Medicare reimbursements for durable medical equipment and make new recommendations to Congress resulting from delay of the program’s controversial competitive bidding project.
The Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act halted the bidding program two weeks after its July 1 implementation, but in exchange, reimbursements for items and services that were selected for bidding were cut by 9.5 percent. That cut that will become effective Jan. 1, 2009.
Along with the bid delay, round one contracts that had been awarded to 325 providers were terminated.
According to a press report, Commissioner Nancy M. Kane, professor of management in the Department of Health Policy and Management and associate dean of education at the Harvard School of Public Health, said a program that reduces the number of providers from thousands to 325 is doomed to failure.
But the American Association for Homecare noted several other points discussed during the meeting raise “serious concerns.” In its newsletter last week, AAHomecare said:
–MedPAC staff repeated a statement by acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems, who testified before Congress in May that Medicare prices DME items inaccurately compared to Internet prices, and that little in the way of services is involved in the durable medical equipment benefit.
–The commission chairman indicated “there is a seemingly egregious problem between what Medicare is paying and the generally available prices.”
–MedPAC staff said the competitive bidding program provided a means of arriving at “realistic” pricing while weeding out providers prone to fraud–with no reduction in patient access to care.
At the meeting, it was decided that MedPAC staff would return to members with recommendations for different approaches to study the issue.
In 2006, MedPAC wrote former CMS Administrator Mark McClellan in support of competitive bidding.
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