Think tank releases issue brief on ‘broken’ competitive bidding program
By HME News Staff
Updated 12:27 PM CST, Wed November 5, 2025
SACRAMENTO – Proposed reforms to the next round of the competitive bidding program (CBP) for DMEPOS don’t go far enough to fix fundamental flaws, according to a new issue brief from the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute, a nonpartisan, free market think tank. “Medicare’s current broken bidding process drives up taxpayer costs, promotes the use of lower-quality equipment that doesn’t serve patients well, and results in shortages of wheelchairs, CPAP machines and prosthetics,” said Dr. Wayne Winegarden, director of the center and author of the brief. PRI says the broken bidding process is:
- Biased toward awarding contracts that deliver lower cost, lower quality medical equipment that can worsen health outcomes for patients; and
- Uses a median bid that encourages gamesmanship of firms offering lowball bids to hurt their competition.
The brief makes the case that if the goal is to improve patient outcomes while generating Medicare savings, a better bidding process would take a holistic approach, considering the additional health care costs that arise when patients use lower cost, lower quality equipment and experience poorer health outcomes. “It’s long past time for the federal government to reform the process so providers are paid appropriate prices while being held accountable to produce the equipment as promised – and patients have access to high quality durable medical equipment,” said Winegarden.
Comments