BALTIMORE--When the inevitable question of whether or not competitive bidding would go forward was raised during a CMS Open Door Forum Wednesday, an agency official answered: “Nothing has been decided yet.”
Following a brief presentation that revealed little new information, CMS opened the phone lines for questions from the 376 listeners in attendance. Few were asked, but one hit home as the question of the day.
“Since there is some possibility that Congress will act on some legislation to delay competitive bidding, how will the world be notified when and if that happens?... I am just curious if you have in place a set of rubrics so people will know what they are supposed to do if they hear that something was passed,” an audience member asked, referring to a then-pending Senate vote on delay of the program. (See related story in this issue.)
CMS' Martha Kuespert responded: “At this point I just want to say that we are speeding forward with implementation for July 1. We all know how things go on Capitol Hill. We are, of course, aware of what's going on up there and we are prepared to deal with whatever happens and notify people if there is a delay. There are all kinds of ways that we have to notify the supplier community--list servs, Web postings, things of that nature, but we want to stress that everybody needs to be ready for July 1 for the program to start up.”
As a follow-up, the questioner asked, “So people should go ahead as planned until they hear something directly from CMS?” To which Kuespert replied, “Well, I think that's right. I mean, no law has been passed.”
In addition to encouraging all providers to be ready for July 1, CMS also presented the following information during last week's conference call:
--The final version of the supplier quality standards is now in the “internal clearance process,” according to CMS' Sandra Bastinelli. She said that once the quality standards clear the process--most likely by the end of July--they will be posted on CMS' Web site.
--Zip code files for both mail order and non-mail order diabetic testing supplies have been posted on the CMS competitive bidding Web site at www.cms.hhs.gov/DMEPOScompetitivebid.
--On a related note, CMS revealed it has not yet come up with a clarification on the definition of “mail order.” “We're still working on it,” an official said.
CMS' next Open Door Forum for Home Health, Hospice and DME is scheduled Aug. 13.