Posted by: Sean Schwighammer
on Dec 11, 2009
Over 4,000 business were removed from Medicare in Round One areas
Earlier this week, the Government Accountability Office released a study on the variety of problems with Round One DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program (CBP). The program ran for two weeks, but was stopped by Congress on July 15, 2008 because of concerns about unqualified bid winners and patient access issues.
For the first time details which Medicare refused to confirm have been made public. Medicare has also acknowledged problems that industry associations have been warning legislators about including: unlicensed bid winners, inexperienced bid winners and a reduction in the majority of existing providers in each of the Competitive Bidding Areas (CBAs). Ironically, the report was released as companies in nine metropolitan areas are preparing to re-bid, under an almost identical set of rules in the first round of the program. Once the program is re-implemented, only bid winners can provide the majority of Durable Medical Equipment items for those local Medicare beneficiaries.
Posted by: Rob Brant
on Nov 13, 2009
The recent mass closing of oxygen providers has caused Medicare to release a new policy addressing how patients can obtain oxygen equipment after their oxygen provider files for bankruptcy. However, the new policy would keep a patient waiting in a hospital for days while providers research court documents to find if the patient's previous company filed for bankruptcy and repossessed the patient's oxygen equipment. Then, if the oxygen provider can get the necessary court documents and is willing to go through the review process, they may choose to provide oxygen equipment so the patient can be discharged from physician care.
