CBIC Sends Heads-Up on Round 1 Documents

DORAL, Fla. — Members of the Florida Alliance of Home Care
Services and the Texas Alliance of Home Care Services said last
week they had received email notifications from the Competitive
Bidding Implementation Contractor about hardcopy documents
submitted for Round 1 of competitive bidding.

The notices were sent only to bidders in the Round 1 rebid who
submitted their financial documents before Nov. 21, 2009, CMS’
covered
document review deadline. The bidding window for the rebid
closed Dec. 21.

According to the associations’ report, if bidders’ hardcopy
documents were complete, the email stated:

The Competitive Bidding Implementation Contractor (CBIC)
received your financial documents by the CDRD and determined that
no financial documents were missing from your package. Therefore,
no further action on your part is required. Please be aware that
this email only indicates that none of your financial documents are
missing. It does not indicate or confirm that your financial
documents are acceptable, accurate or meet applicable
requirements.

If the required bid documents were incomplete, however, the
email said an official notice about which documents were missing
would be sent by Jan. 4. That notice will also include the date by
which providers must submit the missing documents in order for
their bids to be considered:

ACTION REQUIRED – BE ALERT FOR NOTIFICATION ABOUT YOUR
BID

The Competitive Bidding Implementation Contractor (CBIC)
received your financial documents by the CDRD and determined that
one or more required financial documents were missing. The official
notification identifying which financial documents were missing
from your package will be sent to you by January 4, 2010. Please
carefully review the instructions included in the official
notification as soon as you receive it. The notification will
provide the deadline by which you must submit the missing documents
in order for your bid to be evaluated.

It is important to note that the notification will only
apply to missing financial documents as of the CDRD. The
notification will not apply to any financial documents that you may
have submitted after the CDRD. It also will not indicate or confirm
that the financial documents are acceptable, accurate or meet
applicable requirements. Furthermore, the Request for Bids (RFB)
states that once bidding closes, all bids are considered final and
no further amendments to the bids are permitted. Therefore, you may
only submit the missing financial document(s) indicated in the
notification. You cannot submit revised versions of any documents
you submitted before the bid window closed on December 21,
2009.

For bidders who took advantage of the document review, the
crucial heads-up from CMS could mean the difference between winning
and losing a bid. CMS will not, however, be checking to see if the
documents are acceptable, accurate or meet applicable
requirements.

In the original Round 1, according to a recent
Government Accountability Office report, approximately half of
the bids were disqualified, mostly due to missing financial
documentation or noncompliance with accreditation requirements.

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