In a Nutshell

Called the Medicare Durable Medical Equipment Access Act of 2005, or H.R. 3559, the bill would:

• require that competitive bidding not be implemented until supplier quality standards are in place;
• exempt small rural (under 500,000) MSAs;
• allow all qualified providers that are small businesses and that submitted a bid below the current allowable to participate at the selected award price;
• restore the right of providers participating in the program to administrative and judicial review;
• exempt items and services from bidding unless savings of at least 10 percent can be demonstrated, compared to the fee schedule in effect Jan. 1, 2006;
• protect beneficiary access to care by requiring CMS to conduct a comparability analysis for areas that are not competitively bid to ensure the rate is appropriate to costs and does not reduce access to care; and
• subject the Program Advisory and Oversight Committee — a 22-member industry panel charged with advising CMS on implementing the program — to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires public access to meetings and proceedings.

View the full text of the bill at http://thomas.loc.gov.

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