ATLANTA — HME providers who won contracts in the aborted Round One of DMEPOS competitive bidding last year plan to campaign against the newest attempt to implement the program, they told HomeCare Monday last week.
"From Blackburn's point of view, we are working on parallel tracks. We are working with [the American Association for Homecare] on how we can combat competitive bidding and defeat it, and on the other track … what changes would have to be made to the current methodology to make it a workable program," said Georgie Blackburn, who oversees government relations for the Tarentum, Pa.-based company.
"Blackburn's, as a provider, will definitely be rebidding. But we are hoping to get this stopped before it gets to there," she added.
Chris Rice of Diamond Respiratory Care in Riverside, Calif., said he hopes competitive bidding will either be delayed or dropped completely. Even though the second go-round has been implemented, he said, "I still think there are avenues that we could take to delay it."
Rice, who launched a Web site, competingbid.com, to fight the program last year, said he would likely revitalize the site. "I haven't done much with the site [since competitive bidding was delayed], but we're still averaging 40,000 to 50,000 hits a month. It's still a hot topic," he said.
When Congress delayed the bidding project for 18 months, legislators directed CMS to fix its problems. But CMS reprised competitive bidding in an interim final rule that requires a rebid of Round One in 2009.
"They really didn't change much of anything," Rice pointed out.
That angered stakeholders and legislators alike, and both groups responded to HHS and CMS delineating the issues with the IFR and calling for its delay at least until the Obama administration's new leadership could study the rule.
In an April 15 letter, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, threw his support behind the request. In the letter, addressed to Health and Human Services Acting Director Charles Johnson, Grassley said he was concerned "that the agency plans to move ahead without engaging in a thoughtful and deliberative process to resolve ongoing concerns about the implementation of the competitive bidding program."
In all, more than 100 legislators from both parties and houses of Congress asked for the program's delay. But CMS refused, and the bidding rule went into effect April 18.
The American Association for Homecare has formed a task force to discuss options for getting adjustments to the program or coming up with an alternative. The association also has hired a Washington health care consulting firm to figure out what the cost of eliminating the bidding program would be. (See IFR Clears Way for Round One Do-Over, April 20.)
"As it is right now, it is unacceptable," Blackburn said about the IFR. "We as an industry have to do something about it. Our personal goal at Blackburn's is to stop competitive bidding."