325 Suppliers to Serve How Many Beneficiaries?

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the names of the 325 suppliers that have signed contracts with Medicare to provide certain medical equipment and supplies to beneficiaries in 10 communities across the U.S.

Find out the names of winning bidders in your Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Who Won in Round One?

Based on bids submitted by these suppliers, beneficiaries and Medicare will see prices, on average, 26 percent lower than Medicare currently pays for the same items. CMS received bids from 1,005 suppliers. There were just under 6,200 bids for one or more product categories in competitive bidding areas (CBAs) where the new program is being implemented. CMS offered contracts to 23 percent of suppliers that submitted bids. These suppliers were in the winning price range and met quality and financial standards and disclosure requirements. Sixty-one percent of the bids submitted were priced higher than the winning range, and just over half of these high-priced submissions were disqualified because they failed to meet other bid requirements. The remaining 16 percent of bids would have been in the winning range had they not been disqualified.

Medicare Announces Winning Suppliers for Round I; Extends Accreditation Deadline for Round II

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the names of the 325 suppliers that have signed contracts with Medicare to provide certain medical equipment and supplies to beneficiaries in 10 communities across the U.S. The new competitive bidding program goes into effect on July 1, 2008.

CMS also announced that it is extending the deadline for suppliers in the 70 second round metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) to become accredited. CMS is extending the deadline because a significant number of suppliers in those communities have not yet applied for accreditation.

Suppliers must be accredited or have applied for accreditation by July 21, 2008, (formerly May 14, 2008), and the final accreditation deadline for the second round of competitive bidding is now January 14, 2009, a change from the October 31, 2008 deadline.

To read the entire CMS Press release issued Monday, please go here: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press_releases.asp

Stark Seeks to Block 'Flawed and Lousy' Competitive Bidding Program

Calling the program “somewhere between flawed and lousy,” House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Fortney “Pete” Stark (D-Calif.), said he was unsure if repeal legislation could pass this year. Round I of the program is set to take effect July 1 in 10 MSAs. However, he added he would work with the industry to try to block competitive bidding, despite the costs of ending the program.

Competitive Bid Final Jeopardy - What is 'that shows your usefulness as a witness?'

What Ways and Means Committee Chairman Pete Stark (D-CA) said when Acting CMS Commissioner Weems responded that he saw nothing that he would change about the DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program.

Here’s the Math - 1,005 Bidders Round One, 630 Disqualified

Competitive bidding numbers gleaned from CMS officials at a briefing for House of Representatives staff ricocheted around the country last week. While much of the data was confusing, one thing was clear: Nearly 63 percent of the bids in Round One were disqualified.

CMS revealed that of the 1,005 unique bidders in Round One, 630 were disqualified due to insufficient applications.

Initially, CMS had expected more than 28,000 bidders across the 10 product categories and 10 MSAs in Round One.