competitive bidding

WASHINGTON—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is recommending adding a new “country of origin" field as a requirement for lead items provided by durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers chosen for the agency’s Medicare competitive bidding program.

WASHINGTON—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provided detailed fact sheets for the new round of competitive bidding through the Competitive Bidding Implementation Contractor website. 

The following fact sheets for the competitive bidding program (CBP) were posted dated June 4: 

ARLINGTON, Virginia—American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) announced that it has launched a new End User CBP Activation Toolkit to help the HME industry submit its comments in opposition to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services's (CMS) proposed rule to revive the competitive bidding program (CBP).

WASHINGTON—In its recently released budget documents, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has indicated that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is likely to start the next round of competitive bidding. 

ARLINGTON, Virginia—The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) adjustment updates for calendar year (CY) 2025 durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS) fee schedules, the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) released in a recent newsletter to members.

WASHIGTON, D.C. (August 11, 2022)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is not planning substantial rulemaking to set a new round of home medical equipment competitive bidding in motion, the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) said in a press release. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 10, 2022)—Legislation to apply 90/10 blended Medicare reimbursement rate for home medical equipment (HME) in former competitive bidding areas (CBA) has been formally introduced in the United States House of Representatives. The DMEPOS Relief Act of 2022 (HR 6641) would boost rates for items in the 13 product categories whose bid results were not implemented in Round 2021. These increased rates would apply from Jan. 1, 2022 through Dec. 31, 2023.  

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 7, 2022)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Competitive Bidding Implementation Contractor (CBIC) recently announced the redesigned CBIC homepage.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 2, 2021)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published fee schedule adjustments for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS) for calendar year (CY) 2022. Adjustments differ depending on whether the items serviced are competitive bidding program (CBP) items or in former competitive bidding areas (CBAs). Below is the breakdown:

WATERLOO, Iowa (October 19, 2021)—VGM Government, in conjunction with Brian Leitten and Leitten Consulting, has released an updated study analyzing the efforts by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to control distribution of durable medical equipment (DME). The study, “Competitive Bidding—A Decade Focused on the Wrong Prize.

WASHIGNTON, D.C. (August 5, 2021)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has added bid data that compares Round 2021 of the Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Competitive Bidding Program (CBP) to the most recent three rounds of competition.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 30, 2021)—It’s a victory for complex rehab suppliers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule that ends the application of bid-derived rates for complex rehab technology (CRT) wheelchairs.

ARLINGTON, Va. (June 1, 2021)—Home medical equipment (HME) suppliers in rural and other non-bid areas received significant support in the April 2020 Cares Act through measures that extended the 50/50 blended rate for rural suppliers through the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), and for the first time provided a 75/25 rate (a blend using 75% current adjusted rates and 25% unadjusted rates) for suppliers in other non-bid areas for the duration of the PHE.

WASHINGTON D.C. (May 26, 2021)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released additional information about the bids received in Round 2021 of Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics and Supplies (DMEPOS) Competitive Bidding Program.  

Background on Round 2021