Congressional Recess

Congress left Washington on Aug. 2 for a five-week “constituent work week” in their states/districts without taking the action necessary to stop the Medicare bidding program. This is a great opportunity to get your legislators’ undivided attention to discuss the problems that you, your customers and other stakeholders are having with Round 2 of the Medicare bidding program. AAHomecare and People for Quality Care have identified and documented many of the specific problems with the program by state, which is available for use in your meetings. However, your personal stories, as a constituent, are what really matter.

What to Do

Contact your senator’s and representative’s local office today to discuss the Medicare bidding program and the negative impact it is having on your company, the beneficiaries it serves and how it is increasing costs throughout the health care continuum. For example, if the competitive bidding program forces a beneficiary to extend a stay in a hospital as an inpatient because the discharge planner could not find a bid winner to supply a product needed on the day of discharge, any “savings” realized through the bidding program would be substantially less than what an extra day or two in a hospital would cost the Medicare program overall. It is imperative that legislators are continuously updated with the latest impact of the bidding program and how it is impacting access to quality health care for constituents.

Meeting Venue and Attendees

When calling your legislator’s local office, you have three options for a meeting. It is best to start with a request for your legislator to come to your office so he or she can see your operation and better understand what you do and who you serve. If a visit to your office is not possible, request a meeting at his or her local office. In both scenarios, you should try and have a beneficiary and health care provider (i.e., physician, clinician, social worker, discharge planner) who have also been impacted by the program join you to further strengthen your message regarding why the program must be stopped and replaced with an alternative. If a personal meeting is not possible during the August congressional break, ask if the legislator has any public meetings in the area you could attend. While a public meeting is not the ideal format to discuss Round 2 issues, it does provide an opportunity to update the legislator on the impact of the program and may open the door for a private meeting.

Messages and Resources Available

The best message to give to your legislators is a personal story of the direct impact Round 2 of the Medicare bidding program is having on your company, its patients and referral sources/discharge planners. In addition, AAHomecare and People for Quality Care are compiling a list of the beneficiary complaints with the program by state that provides details of the specific problems identified to date. This information is powerful and seems to be increasing the support within Congress to change the program via an alternative. It is also important to let your legislator know that the industry solution is the Market Pricing Program (MPP), which was designed to fix the fundamental flaws of competitive bidding identified by economists and auction experts. Support for MPP is continuing to gain strength in the House and Senate every week. CMS continues to insist that there are few problems with the Medicare bidding program and even fewer complaints about its implementation, which is the message they are sending to Congress. We know better. It is imperative that we share the dramatic shortcomings and overall negative impact of the program with our elected officials. The August recess is the perfect time to tell them about the problems with competitive bidding and to show them what is occurring in their district and state. I remain confident that we can and will stop the competitive bidding program and replace it with the Market Pricing Program alternative, but it will require everyone’s ongoing outreach and communication with legislators to do so.