AO Bid Registration Due Today

ATLANTA — The first deadline in the competitive bidding juggernaut
hits today with CBIC officials “strongly urging” so-called
“authorized officials” (AOs) to register for bidding no later than
Sept. 14, 2009. In addition to accreditation and surety bond requirements, registration
is another link in the qualification chain for providers looking to
rebid in Round 1 of competitive bidding.

While the competitive bidding implementation contractor (CBIC)
Web
site falls short of actually mandating the registration,
consultant Miriam Lieber said the missive should be taken
seriously.

“On 9/14 at 4:00 p.m., people are going to start realizing that
they did not do it,” said Lieber, owner of California-based Lieber
Consulting. “If it were me, I would not play games with this.
Granted, it says ‘strongly encouraged,’ but they [the CBIC] want to
get a gauge. They want to know how many providers are going to
bid.”

With bonding and accreditation in place, provider Evelyn Herndon
planned on registering on 9/12 or 9/13, just ahead of today’s
recommended deadline. As CEO and owner of Ellis County Home Medical
Equipment in Ennis, Texas, Herndon then intends to rebid in hopes
of winning a CMS contract. After spending nearly 70 hours on last
year’s chaotic first go-round (delayed due to Congress’ reprieve),
Herndon ended up winning no contracts.

With new bidding instructions, Herndon will give it another try
in hopes that government computer glitches will be cleared up.

“I will attempt to get the bid in early, but if they have not
revamped the computer systems, we don’t have a lot of confidence
that it will go smoothly,” said Herndon. “We will attempt to
participate, and we will also hope that additional legislation will
pass that will be beneficial for the beneficiaries and small
providers.”

During the last bid, Herndon was remarkably the only qualified
bidder in Ellis County, a region of more than 110,000 residents.
“According to my determination letter, I was qualified but my bid
was above the range,” laments Herndon. “People who won the bids
were out of state, and they told untruths to beneficiaries. I went
so far as to subcontract with a winning bidder so that I could
continue business until the chaos passed, but we did not have to
move forward with that.”

If she fails to win any contracts this time around, Herndon
said, she will not pursue subcontracting, and she feels confident
she can stay in business even without the government program.

“I am privileged that I have many private insurance contracts
and Medicaid,” said Herndon. “We have loyal clients and we have
geared our business to depend less on Medicare.”

In a presentation on
bidding last month, Cindy Dreher, content and policy lead for
the CBIC, said the bidding registration process is “very simple and
should only take you about 10 minutes.” Registration opened Aug. 17
for the Round 1 rebid and will close Nov. 4 at 9 p.m. ET. Beyond
today’s deadline for registration of AOs, CMS has advised that
“backup authorized officials,” or BAOs, register no later than Oct.
9.

See CMS’ Third Special
ODF on the Way for information on the third in CMS’ series of
Special Open Door Forums on the Round 1 rebid on Wednesday, Sept.
16.

For further information on the bidding process, including a
bidding timeline, sample bid forms and additional resources, see
the CBIC Web site at www.dmecompetitivebid.com.