Medicare Bidding For Durable Medical Equipment Will Harm Small Businesses And Seniors' Access To Care

The Medicare bidding program for durable medical equipment will hurt small providers and "undermine the nation's homecare infrastructure" unless Congress modifies the program. This is the key message that will be presented to a congressional subcommittee today by the American Association for Homecare. The Association believes the bidding program will "jeopardize patients' standard of care, choice of provider, and access to the medical equipment and services they need."

Georgie Blackburn, vice president at Blackburn's, a homecare provider in Pittsburgh, Pa. and a board director at the American Association for Homecare, will testify on behalf of the Association on October 31 before the U.S. House Small Business Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight.

Blackburn will testify that under the bidding program, "Those who are not selected as winning bidders will not be able to provide competitively bid equipment or services to Medicare beneficiaries. Since Medicare payments typically comprise 35 to 50 percent of a small provider's revenue, losing the ability to provide competitively bid items for a three-year contract period is essentially a death knell."