Competitive Bidding Forms Posted

WASHINGTON–Last month, a request for comments on the latest
competitive bidding forms was published in the Federal
Register, including request for bids information
collection.

Instructions include the following basic bidding rules:

–CMS will not allow more than one bid per item in a product
category from a supplier.

–Suppliers that share common ownership, as will be defined in
the Medicare DMEPOS competitive bidding final rule, can only submit
one bid.

–Network member suppliers will not be allowed to bid separately
from their network for the same product category in the same
competitive bidding area. Network members can only join one network
per product category per CBA.

–Network members and suppliers with multiple locations who
share common ownership must bid on the same product categories
within the CBA.

–Bids must include the cost of furnishing the item throughout
the geographic area that makes up the CBA, except for entities that
are eligible for limited participation in the competitive bidding
program, as defined in the final rule.

–Furnishing the item includes the cost of providing the item
and any requisite services directly associated with the item, such
as proper beneficiary and caregiver training and follow-up,
manufacturer’s shipping charges, maintaining rented equipment in
proper order, education, delivery, set-up and retrieval.

–The bidding form will identify if a product will be paid on
either a rental or purchase basis and whether the bid should
represent a purchase or rental amount.

–The RFB form requires suppliers to identify the item for which
they are bidding by manufacturer, model name and number. We
recognize that suppliers may change models in later periods of the
bidding cycle.

The forms and instructions can be viewed at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PaperworkReductionActof1995/PRAL/list.asp#TopOfPage.
Scroll down the list to form CMS-10169.