Consumer Advocacy Groups Support MPP

• By Laurie Watanabe
• Nov 14, 2012

More than 30 consumer advocacy groups supporting people with wide ranges of disabilities and medical conditions have given their backing to the Market Pricing Program (MPP), an alternative to Medicare's highly controversial and much criticized DMEPOS competitive bidding program.

An Oct. 31 letter from Paul Tobin, president/CEO of United Spinal Association, to Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) thanked the Congressman for introducing H.R. 6490, the House bill that would establish an auction process for DME that Tobin says, "will result in accountability, transparency and market-based pricing. It will ensure that Medicare beneficiaries, including individuals with disabilities, continue to have access to high-quality, medically required durable medical equipment and services that will give our community the ability to live active, productive independent lives with improved health outcomes."

Tobin protests that Medicare's competitive bidding program, in contrast, "restricts access to, and choice of, DME items and services by forcing consumers to use certain durable medical equipment providers whether they furnish the products and services that provide the most benefit to consumers or not."

Tobin added, "Consumers are already experiencing access problems in nine round 1 areas" since competitive bidding began in January 2011.

Organizations listed as supporting the MPP range from the American Association of People with Disabilities to the American Sleep Apnea Association, the Brain Injury Association of America, the National Emphysema/COPD Association, the National Council on Independent Living, and the Spina Bifida Association of America.

Click HERE for the full list of consumer organizations and to read Tobin's full letter.