AMEPA Rallies Providers on Streets of Florida, Texas MIAMI--Home medical equipment providers working frantically to stall the implementation of round one of competitive bidding took their efforts to the streets in Florida last week, waving placards and handing out flyers to passersby in hopes of drumming up more support.
Two more rallies are planned, one today in downtown Orlando, and one on Tuesday in Dallas, according to Rob Brant, president of the Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of America, which sponsored the rallies.
News of the rallies--and the industry’s side of the competitive bidding story--appeared on the front of the business sections of both the Miami Herald and the Sun-Sentinel.
“No experience + no license + no office = bid winner” proclaimed a placard in a photo accompanying the Sun-Sentinel story.
Brant said he was pleased at the support for the rallies so far. More than 100 providers showed up for Thursday’s rally in front of the Department of Health and Human Services office Miami, he said. AMEPA’s rally permit allowed for only 30 people at a time, however, so providers had to alternate. Still, “we had so many people in Miami that we had all four corners of the intersection covered.”
Other rallies in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach were also well supported, he said.
AMEPA decided to sponsor the rallies, Brant said, after the American Association for Homecare’s May 21 legislative fly-in. Some 160 providers descended on Capitol Hill to meet with legislators about competitive bidding and urge them to delay its implementation.
“After the Washington fly-in, we just figured every congressman would be on board around the state,” Brant said.
But in a discussion with an aide to Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Brant found that was not the case. Indeed, neither of Florida’s senators supported a delay.
“Nelson’s health care aide said that if CMS said everything is fine, then everything is fine,” Brant said. “We were appalled by that. We were really frustrated they weren’t listening to us. So now we’re making them listen to us, which is basically why we are doing the rallies.”