WSJ Article Highlights Consumer Worries

The issue of competitive bidding is garnering attention from
consumers as well. On Thursday, the Wall Street
Journal delved into the topic in an article headlined
“Medicare Rules on Equipment Worry
Patients.”

“Millions of older and disabled people could face stiff
new restrictions on where they go for medical equipment under a
Medicare plan to overhaul how the federal insurer pays for such
devices,” wrote reporter Barbara Martinez.

The article quoted AAHomecare President Tyler Wilson as saying,
“Competitive bidding is going to eliminate 90 percent of home
care providers. The result is going to be lower quality and lower
access to care for seniors and people with disabilities.”

Martinez also talked to other organizations representing
beneficiaries, such as the Paralyzed
Veterans of America and the United Spinal
Association. Each indicated concern about patient access to
proper equipment. And Jerry Jones, a ventilator-dependent patient
from Hamilton, Ohio, told the newspaper he uses multiple pieces of
equipment to deal with his pulmonary hypertension. He’s
worried, he said, about losing his current provider who comes out
to check all the equipment once a week.

But the story also quoted CMS’ Laurence Wilson, director of the
chronic care policy group, who said competitive bidding would
provide “value to Medicare and its beneficiaries, as well as
taxpayers.” The newspaper noted Medicare could save $1 billion a
year with the bidding program in place, pointing out that the
government pays “$4,000 for a power wheelchair, for instance,” but
says the same item “can be bought on the Internet for $2,200.”

The story prompted Waterloo, Iowa-based member services group
VGM to urge its
members to forward the article “to all beneficiaries and
encourage them to get in touch with their congressional members to
‘raise the alarm.’” AAHomecare sent the article
to more than 400 Capitol Hill offices.

Meanwhile, AAHomecare moved to attack competitive bidding from
another angle. In a congressional email and press releases on
Wednesday, the association applauded President Barack Obama’s
plan to aid small businesses by making $15 billion in loans
available. However, the association noted, the president could
actually save multitudes of small businesses “by rescinding
the ‘competitive’ bidding regulations issued in the
final hours of the previous administration.”

In its email, AAHomecare recommended legislators request that Obama
rescind the competitive bidding rule and “consider ways in
which the home medical sector already provides a cost-effective and
quality-focused health care solution to Americans
today.”