The product categories for the next round of Medicare competitive bidding will look very different from what industry veterans are accustomed to seeing.
According to a Dec. 9 bulletin from the American Association of Homecare (AAHomecare), “legacy product categories,” including oxygen, standard wheelchairs, CPAP systems, hospital beds “and others included in previous bidding rounds will not be part of the bidding round set to begin next year.”
Following AAHomecare’s announcement, the National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab Technology (NCART) sent out a bulletin that added, “Complex rehab and Group 2 power chairs are not included in competitive bidding.”
Updates to the competitive bidding fact sheet
AAHomecare said the CMS fact sheet had been updated with “subtle” changes that included “changing the heading above the product categories listed from the previous Remote Item Delivery (RID) DMEPOS CBP Product Categories to the new DMEPOS CBP Product Categories.”
“All product categories for the next round will be included in the Nationwide Remote Item Delivery Program,” the association added.
Therefore, the only DMEPOS categories to be included in the next Medicare competitive bidding round are class II continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) and insulin pumps; urological supplies; ostomy supplies; hydrophilic urinary catheters; off-the-shelf (OTS) back braces; OTS knee braces; and OTS upper-extremity braces.
“The update to the fact sheet follows on requests from AAHomecare and other industry stakeholders to the agency seeking specifics on the product categories for the next round,” AAHomecare said.
AAHomecare also mentioned recent meetings with legislators, noting that the association’s lobbying team “repeatedly emphasized how the proposed bidding framework would result in payment levels that did not reflect increased operational and product costs facing DME [durable medical equipment] suppliers, and that previous bidding rounds had already produced sufficient savings and price discovery for these legacy product categories. CMS’s decision to keep these items out of the next bidding round is evidence those messages resonated with policymakers.”
AAHomecare President/CEO Tom Ryan said there is still work to be done, but added, “This is a significant win for a large segment of the home medical equipment community and the patients they serve. It’s a great result following the wave of comments and our industry’s comprehensive advocacy effort responding to a flawed framework for restarting the bidding program.”
The association, Ryan said, continues to push to delay the restart of competitive bidding “or improve its framework on behalf of diabetes, ostomy and urological product stakeholders who will be subject to bidding.”
