Bidding vs. Small Business: Schuler Convenes Hearing No. 2

WASHINGTON — Once again, Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., will
convene a congressional hearing to discuss the effects of DMEPOS competitive bidding on
small business.

Scheduled Wednesday, the hearing will be the second time Shuler,
chairman of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Rural
Development, Entrepreneurship and Trade, has called in his
congressional colleagues to discuss the subject. Opening a hearing
in May 2008, Shuler said it was unclear how under competitive
bidding CMS would be able to deliver on its promise of reducing
costs, improving effectiveness and ensuring access to care for
seniors “without driving small health care providers out of
business and limiting access to care.”

After listening to several small HME providers detail their
issues with the program and the problems in Round One, Schuler
said, “When serious challenges arise in the early stages of any
process, you focus on fixing them. You don’t make them worse by
expanding the program and extending negative impacts to new
markets. CMS needs to take a careful look at this initiative before
it moves any further. Anything less hurts small businesses,
patients and the economy, and is unacceptable.”

Congress subsequently delayed Round One of the bidding program.
But CMS ramped it up again with an interim final rule issued Jan.
16, so unless competitive bidding is further delayed or eliminated,
providers will have to face it again.

Shuler, honored as 2008 Legislator of the Year by the North Carolina Association for
Medical Equipment Services, worked with NCAMES to dovetail the
hearing with AAHomecare’s “Homecare on Capitol Hill” lobbying event this
week. NCAMES member Bill Griffin, owner of Griffin
Home Health Care in Charlotte, N.C., will testify at the Feb.
11 hearing, which will focus on the effects that the Medicare
bidding program has had on small businesses across the country.

In a NCAMES press release, Griffin, who was involved in Round
One, said the program would be “devastating to small business but
greater will be the far-reaching negative impact on patient care,
services to patrons, families and caregivers in the community.”

Additional witnesses from other Round One MSAs include HME
providers Georgie Blackburn of Blackburn’s in
Tarentum, Pa., representing the American Association
for Homecare; Gerald Sloan of Progressive Medical Equipment in Lenexa, Kan.;
and Rob Brant of City Medical Services in North Miami Beach, Fla. Brant
also serves as president of the Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of
America, whose members went to court last year over Round One
bid disqualification.

CMS’ Laurence Wilson, director of the agency’s Chronic Care
Policy Group, has also been called to testify.

The hearing is set to begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Room 2360 at
the Rayburn House Office Building.

Said NCAMES Executive Director Beth Bowen, “We are looking
forward to a standing-room-only crowd to show support for the
elimination of competitive bidding to protect the small business
community that is critical to our economy.”

Read the text of the interim final rule.

For information on AAHomecare’s Feb. 11 fly-in, visit the
“Homecare on Capitol Hill” Day event page.