Industry seeks support for bidding alternative
By HME News Staff
Updated Tue October 18, 2011
WASHINGTON - AAHomecare has delivered a letter signed by five industry associations to Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont. and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, urging them to support a market-based pricing system for HME.
In the Oct. 14 letter, AAHomecare outlined industry concerns about the current competitive bidding program.
The letter states: "The competitive bidding program is a deeply flawed pricing mechanism that has and will continue to create significant obstacles to quality patient care and needed services while threatening the homecare infrastructure for our nation's seniors and persons with disabilities."
NAIMES, The MED Group, the Committee to Save Independent Home Medical Equipment Suppliers (CSIHME), The VGM Group and the Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of America (AMEPA) signed the letter
The market-based pricing system, approved by AAHomecare's board of directors in August, calls for, among other things, a reduction in the size of market pricing areas; a limit on a provider's capacity to its historical utilization in a county; clear and transparent provider qualifications based on a supplier's prior claims history; and a provider bid bond and performance guarantee.
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