Round 2 Details Coming, CMS Says

BALTIMORE — While CMS is still reviewing bids for Round 1
of competitive bidding
— pricing will be announced in June and winners in September
— agency staff said it will also announce the final Round 2
bid schedule and begin a bidding education and registration program
later this year.

At a March 17 meeting of the Program Advisory and Oversight
Committee, formed to advise CMS on the bidding program, agency
officials said Round 2 bidding will take place between the spring
and summer of 2011. Pricing will be announced in the spring of 2012
with contract winners following in the summer; implementation is
scheduled for Jan. 1, 2013.

Additional details for Round 2, which will add 70 MSAs to the
national bidding program for DME, will be in a notice of proposed
rulemaking expected this summer. In a final rule to be published
this fall, CMS will announce the Round 2 product categories.

The entire Round 2 timeline looks like this:

• Summer 2010 — Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
  released.
• Fall 2010 — The final rule and product categories
  released; pre-bidding awareness program begins.
• Winter 2011 — CMS announcement of the bidding schedule,
  beginning of bidder education.
• Spring 2011 — Registration ends, bidding begins, and the
  covered document review process begins (notification if financial
  documents are missing).
• Summer 2011 — Bidding ends.
• Fall 2011 — Covered documentation review process ends,
  and bid evaluation begins.
• Spring 2012 — Bid evaluation ends, single payment amounts
  are announced, and the contract process begins.
• Summer 2012 — Contract suppliers are announced, contract
  supplier education begins, and general supplier education
  begins.
• Jan 2013 — Round 2 is implemented.

While Round 1 of the program includes nine cities, three of the
country’s largest MSAs — New York, Chicago and Los Angeles
— were excluded until Round 2.

CMS has recommended that those areas be subdivided into smaller
competitive bidding areas. The Chicago area would include four
CBAs, Los Angeles would be divided into two CBAs, and the 23-county
New York MSA would be split into five CBAs.

The divisions were based on factors including population,
allowed DME charges, geographic size and location of counties,
driving distances, highway infrastructures and location and
servicing area of suppliers, CMS staff said.

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