The following article was published by OAMES associate member VGM on March 11, 2014. OAMES encourages members to participate in the survey to have your voice heard. We're working closely with the American Association for Homecare to develop formal comments which will be sent to CMS in response to this proposal.
The recent ANPRM from CMS requesting comments on applying competitive bidding pricing nationwide in 2016 has sparked a flurry of activity from the DME industry.
In an attempt to help more independent DME's provide their comments and opinion, VGM developed a brief survey that allows providers to sound off on the specific CMS proposals to apply competitive bidding pricing nationwide and create a bundled payment program for DME. That survey has already been completed by more than 600 independent DME's and we still have nearly two weeks to go before the deadline for submissions.
Take the survey at www.vgm.com/survey
In addition to efforts to engage independent DME's and beneficiaries on nationwide expansion of competitive bidding and the possibility of creating a "bundled payment" system for incontinence and all DME, VGM has also taken an active role in engaging our DME participating vendors. Like DME providers, DME vendors have a lot to lose with the proposals floated in the ANPRM. VGM has asked our participating vendors to voice their thoughts on what a bundled payment system for DME would do to the quality of equipment being utilized by Medicare beneficiaries.