Let's look at the mail order category, shall we?

Well, it looks like I posted last week's blog not a moment too soon. CMS released its highly anticipated list (and list upon list upon list) of the Round 2 re-compete contract suppliers.

I am sure you are all out there, busily poring over the list for you area of interest, both products and geography-wise.

And I know poor Kim Brummett and others like her will be poring over all of them.

So, in the interest of sanity, allow me to share initial thoughts on my area of interest: the diabetes category. Conveniently, it's also the only one that's a one-pager.

Last time around, CMS offered approximately 20 mail order contracts (I say approximately, because the number shifted a few times.)

This time around they offered only nine.

A quick comparison of this year's list with the previous list, reveals that only three of the nine contract suppliers are repeaters. The new list also reveals that of the nine, four were among the top 10 providers in the category in the HME Databank in 2014.

So, first question, what kind of impact will reducing the number of mail-order suppliers by half have on a. beneficiary access and b. the suppliers themselves?

The second question is how these companies, will make any money off the new super low pricing?

It remains to be seen.

On a side note, scanning the websites of the new suppliers whose names I didn't recognize, I stumbled across something I hadn't seen before: a medical ID bracelet with a QR code. This way, emergency workers can scan the code and pull up what I would assume is a medical profile that's a bit more comprehensive then a few engrave words can ever provide.

For all I know, this has been around since about the time I let my subscription to Diabetes Forecast expire (I renewed in February and got my first issue last week, it's good to be back!).