Medicare to begin competitive bids

[wardmiller]

I just received notice from Medicare they will initiate a competitive bid system for durable medical equipment and supplies, beginning July 2013. This program will not cover all areas of the country. To find it you are affected, go to:
http://medicare.gov/SupplierDirectory/ and enter your Zip Code.

They claim this program will reduce their cost and, in turn, the dollar amount our 20% requires.

For those who plan to move or visit the affected areas, it can get complicated, so read the details.

Is it fair to assume those haughty DME's we've had to deal with will change their attitudes? Of course, some of them will now disappear from the scene; good riddance.

[StuUnderPressure]

I am not in a competitive bid area at the moment.

Effective 7-1-13, I will be in a competitive bid area, but ONLY for online diabetic supplies (which I do not use).

So, it seems like everything else (including CPAP & supplies) will still be in a non-competitive bid area.

STRANGE to say the least.

I guess online diabetic supplies are so common, they may be doing that competitively nation wide.

[chunkyfrog]

The Medicare site appears to be down . . .

[StuUnderPressure]

The Medicare site appears to be down . . .

Both your link & the link provided by wardmiller works for me.
Worked earlier & is working right now.

[jencat824]

I got thru to the site & my DME got in on the bid. Mine is Nationwide & they were last on the list. I noticed that most DME's are not local & most all have RedMed, PR & F&P. Some have more, but many have just these three & most all have at least these three. If you get a mask that is not from one of these mfgrs, this could be a problem. I know the Elan is made by Cadence so I don't know for sure, but I'm just guessing they won't stock that.

My hubby's DME did not win on the bid & told me earlier this month that they would probably go out of business. She said they bid as low as possible, but because they are a local company that cannot order in bulk, they just could not compete. That's sad, she was really nice to work with. My hubby is not on Medicare, but if they go out of business, I'll just switch him to mine.

This competitive system is supposed to save Medicare money, but I think its going to hurt both the economy (not good if forcing the small business out of business) and patients (if we need supplies not provided by one of the bidders, we have to go out of pocket & not everyone can do that). If the excess were cut out, and allow for small businesses to compete, I think this would help both the economy & patients as well.

Oh, but wait, no one asked me or the others who use CPAP or other Medicare services who have seen the waste in the system & could give constructive ideas to help the system clear out the waste. I'm the one that Nationwide has been sending 2-3 hoses a month forever & I've asked them to stop, they don't seem to hear me. Well, now at least they cannot send anything unless I request it, and I won't request what I don't need.

This competitive bid affects more than just CPAP supplies. I'm dealing with it for my mother-in-law. Apparently Liberty Medical did not win the bid for diabetic supplies in our area (southern Indiana), so I've switched her supplies to our local Rite Aid who did win that bid. Liberty was a bit hard to deal with anyway. They had to have complete records of her blood sugars 4x daily. On dialysis days she only tests 3x daily & I could not get Liberty to understand that. Even though they requested records, they still sent too many strips for her testing on a 90 day cycle. I'm not sorry to see Liberty gone from our area. Wonder if they are gone over all the USA?

Sorry for my long post (may a little of a rant?) but it seems that the government's try for cost reduction will just cost more in the long run & will impact some folks negatively. If you live outside the US, just ignore what I said, it might take too long for me to explain our government idiots.

Jen

[chunkyfrog]

I finally got through; the nearest supplier of diabetes testing supplies only carries ONE meter/strips,
and say it is the only one covered by Medicare: ("at all!"---are they lying?)(edit; yes, they were)
(Omnis Health Embrace--exceptionally poorly rated from what I can see elsewhere.) This is so sad.

[Stormynights]

I have been waiting a month to get a mask from American Home Patient. They gave me mask parts but not enough to make it work. This is ridiculous. I gave up and bought one online again.

[RogerSC]

My area is going to be competitive bid as of 7/1/2013, and my current DME is on the list. Side benefit of checking this out, there's another DME that I wasn't aware of on the list, too. I should check them out and see if they're more helpful than the DME that I have now ("my way or the highway" style).

[Janknitz]

Is it fair to assume those haughty DME's we've had to deal with will change their attitudes?

What fantasy planet do you live on?

The competitive bidding winners now have captive audiences with fewer or NO Choices of other suppliers. And since they'll be making LESS money per unit, they are going to pass the pain on to US, by supplying only the cheapest bricks they can find under the HCPCs codes. Data for straight CPAP will be a thing of the past, and APAPs will will be the cheapest ones out there. No ResMed S9 autos, auto escapes if you're lucky. I looked at one area with competitive bidding and several of the vendors didn't even list ResMed.

It's going to be even more nasty, I would think, except now they can just thumb their noses at us and invite us to go elsewhere to pay out of pocket if we don't like their offerings.

BOHICA--bend over, here it comes again.

[49er]

Is it fair to assume those haughty DME's we've had to deal with will change their attitudes?

What fantasy planet do you live on?

The competitive bidding winners now have captive audiences with fewer or NO Choices of other suppliers. And since they'll be making LESS money per unit, they are going to pass the pain on to US, by supplying only the cheapest bricks they can find under the HCPCs codes. Data for straight CPAP will be a thing of the past, and APAPs will will be the cheapest ones out there. No ResMed S9 autos, auto escapes if you're lucky. I looked at one area with competitive bidding and several of the vendors didn't even list ResMed.

It's going to be even more nasty, I would think, except now they can just thumb their noses at us and invite us to go elsewhere to pay out of pocket if we don't like their offerings.

BOHICA--bend over, here it comes again.

Even though I don't have any insurance, out of curiosity, I searched to see if pap therapy fell under competitive bidding in my area and it did. As far as I could tell, all the vendors, which included several companies, listed resmed and respironics. Of course, what that means as far as models is a whole other issue and I share the concerns that they would be the cheapest ones.

[chunkyfrog]

I figure my health savings account should give me any cpap choices the gov't chooses to deny me,
but decent diabetes supplies could eat it all up in jig time.
Edit: after doing a bit of research on the lesser-known bid winners, the choices are not as dismal as I thought.
Apparently, the market leaders are just way more heavily advertised. . . (keeping fingers crossed)

[6PtStar]

I just received notice from my company that supplied my diabetes testing supplies that they did not win the bid and would no longer be able to supply my needs. Talked to one local company that may still provide the supplies but was told that they would not supply the Accu-Chek that I was using. Said medicare just cut the reimbursement for test strips from $30 per pox to $10. The only one that can be supplied is a Meter called the Prodigy, made in China special. I found the strips for it at Amazon for $12 a box. So far reports on the accuracy are not looking good. Wondering if it is worth testing if the accuracy is that bad. Have not gotten much of an answer on CPAP supplies yet. Most of what I have bought for the past year has come from cpap.com so that may be the only option. I used to get my insulin syringes free with the insulin, jut found out that they are no longer supplied and require a separate co-pay which is higher than what I can get them at the local pharmacy. How do you spell Affordable Health Care............let somebody else pay for it. My local pharmacy just refused to fill my prescription for my cholesterol meds, said their cost was $150 over what medicare would pay. Still trying to find a mail order place that might supply them.

Jerry

[LSAT]

This competative bid process affects Medicare only and does not affect any Medicare Advantage plans. I checked with my DME today....they cannot supply Medicare patients , but my AARP plan is not affected.

[klutzo]

I got the same slick brochure today and spent the afternoon on the phone.

My lovely little personable DME lost the bid, and the only choice I have in my area is the dreaded Lincare, with their one star out of five customer satisfaction status. I was told by another small DME I called that was just bought by Lincare that my particular office of Lincare is an exception and really good, and is now run by their former boss. I talked to them today. The RT was super nice, but told me I will have to give back the brand new machine I just worked so hard to get, after getting the same machine from them, so that I am paying rent to them, not some other company. How stupid is that? Why not just transfer some paperwork so I pay rent to the right place? A machine is a machine. It's exactly the same.

That is when I called my present DME that lost the bid and found out about the grandfathering clause. My old DME is not going out of business, and will be able to supply me until I am done paying rent on my new machine, which they say will be in 13 months. Then I will be forced to change to Lincare, but who knows what will happen in the next year, while I'm still paying rent. If it applies to you, check out grandfathering before you freak out like I did.

I am guessing this crap is part of the Affordable Care Act. Under the Affordable Care Act premiums are going to go up 100-400% according to a poll of the top 17 health insurance companies. In a poll of healthy people under age 40, they said if their premiums go up even 20% most of them will drop their insurance and go without. After all, that generation is making much less now and many have college loans that will hold them down for life. The fee for not having ins. is not much. That will cause the whole thing to fall apart, since the young are supposed to help pay for the old in this plan, so maybe this whole ill conceived boondoggle will all go away.

Advantage plans lose their advantages next year also, because this new law wants a level playing field, which will cause their premiums to go up for all that stuff like gym memberships, vision care and dentists . Only the worst dentists will participate, at least in my area, and the vision care is always for companies that do not even exist here!. In my area, we already have plenty of doctors who won't take Advantage patients, and a few who won't take Medicare at all. If you can't afford a Medicare supplement, and I can't, you are SOL. I had one doctor tell me he was only seeing me because I was on straight Medicare. That scared me away from Advantage Plans, since I've found with my long term chronic illness that having the best possible doctor is the whole ball game, and it's the best ones who can afford to turn away patients they don't get reimbursed well for seeing.

The whole thing sucks and is typical of the government.


klutzo

[wardmiller]

I got the same slick brochure today and spent the afternoon on the phone.

Under the Affordable Care Act premiums are going to go up 100-400% according to a poll of the top 17 health insurance companies.

klutzo

Be patient! A lot of the Affordable Care Act information circulating both on the Net and in many TV news programs is inflammatory on purpose and not based on fact. I don't want to start a political rant in this otherwise informative thread, so I'll leave it at that. Do your own research from reliable sources and you'll sleep better at night. <g> There is not much we, as individuals, can do about it, so we'll just have to wait and see. In my case, come September, I'll be paying less than I am now. I know that for a fact. Don't know about other folks.