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.