MPP madness

The amount of talk and activity around the market-pricing program (MPP) is really at a pitch and fever that I've never heard and seen before.

That's a big deal.

I know I haven't been around the HME industry as long as some of you, but I've been around long enough to remember the Hobson-Tanner bill, one of the first efforts to squash competitive bidding, which made the rounds in D.C. at least six years ago.

When it comes to the industry's current efforts with MPP, I know there's never too much talk and too much activity, but there was so much of it this week that we decided to do a separate roundup for our HME Newswire on Monday. (We posted it to the website today if you want to take an advance look.)

A few more things have come in post-press time, too, like another roundtable sponsored by a state association (MAMES), The VGM Group and PFQC to educate lawmakers on competitive bidding's negative impact and on MPP as an appropriate solution.

Such as the way things are, MPP crept into a lot of the HME News TV interviews that we taped last week at Medtrade.

That's why for the first three weeks in November, we'll be playing interviews on HME News TV that focus on MPP and the industry's efforts as part of an “MPP madness” special package:

Nov. 7: Tyler Wilson of AAHomecare, “Don't leave any representative unapproached”

Nov. 14: Wayne Stanfield & Steve Ackerman, NAIMES, “Time to close the deal”

Nov. 21: Cara Bachenheimer, Invacare, “It's crunch time”

In the days and weeks that follow, if you ever need some motivation to call your representative for the second, third or fourth time, watch one of these videos.

They'll get you moving.