Ohio Lawmakers Ask CMS To Reconsider DME Competitive Bidding

The Ohio Congressional delegation has asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to suspend a competitive bidding pilot program for durable medical equipment, claiming it is flawed.

Fourteen U.S. Representatives from Ohio, both Democrats and Republicans, sent a letter to the CMS last week. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, sent a separate letter.

All have a common complaint: The competitive bidding program, which is intended to reduce costs and fraud among durable medical equipment providers, is awarding contracts to bidders not properly licensed either with the Medicare program or various agencies in the state of Ohio.

CMS launched competitive bidding pilot programs in nine metropolitan areas in 2010. Based on the initial results, CMS plans to expand it to 91 metropolitan areas next month.

“Since these bids came from providers not properly licensed and/or registered in Ohio, they should not have been included in the pool of applicants for the bidding program,” the letter said. It later noted that by accepting the bids, it “may have prevented other bidders from being offered contracts, and most likely skewed the bid price, polluting the entire contractor selection and bid price calculation processes.”

According to data provided by the American Association for Homecare, similarly troubled bids were accepted in Tennessee, Maryland and other states. Altogether, the Ohio lawmakers claim that as many as 80 improper bids were accepted.

Partly as a result, the Ohio Association of Medical Equipment Services claims that legitimate DME vendors are having to cut jobs.

“We were not awarded any of the bids even though we thought we have submitted reasonable prices for the services we provide,” said Dominic Bartone, president of Hock's Pharmacy & Medical Supply in Dayton, Ohio. As a result, Bartone said he had to lay off 20 employees – about half of his staff.

“We have many dedicated providers who are subjected to excessive audits from CMS that drain time and resources, yet the agency implements a bidding program that eliminates many of these responsible, compliant businesses and allows unlicensed providers to service Medicare beneficiaries, who are some of the most vulnerable people in our society,” said Kam Yuricich, Ohio Association of Medical Equipment Services executive director. “It's time for Congress to act and fix the DME procurement process.”