Congressmen Tom Price (R-GA) and John Larson (D-CT) just introduced H.R. 1717, the Medicare DMEPOS Market Pricing Program Act of 2013, along with 23 other original cosponsors. Both legislators serve on the powerful House Ways & Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over all Medicare-related legislation that comes before Congress. Of the 25 original co-sponsors, five are Ohio representatives:
HR 1717 is intended to prevent CMS from implementing Round 2, as well as the Round 1 “recompete”, of the controversial national bidding program and to replace it with a professionally designed market-based pricing program (MPP) that utilizes accepted auction principles. MPP will require binding bids, transparency from CMS and collateral from bidders in order to participate. This will deter out-of-area and even out-of-state companies, without any intention or direct ability to service patients from participating in the program.
TAKE ACTION:
1) If your Member was an initial co-sponsor of HR 1717 (Chabot, Johnson, Joyce, Ryan, Tiberi), contact their office and thank them for their support. Keep making contact and sharing stories and information with these supportive offices so they stay engaged and understand the urgency to move the bill quickly.
2) For the remaining Ohio Congressional offices, contact them NOW and urge them to sign on as a HR 1717 cosponsor! Also, ask them to contact House leadership to urge that the bill is approved prior to the July 1, 2013 deadline for Round 2 implementation.
- Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Representative's office.
- Or call your Congressional office directly and ask to speak with the Health Legislative Assistant. Go to the US House of Representatives website at www.house.gov and you can find legislators by state and name.
- When you speak to the Health LA, or you leave a voicemail, let them know your name, company name and tell them that you are asking for the Congressman (woman) to cosponsor HR 1717. Explain your concerns for Medicare's upcoming bidding program and ask if they can speak with their boss about cosponsoring HR 1717. Remind them of the common sense changes HR 1717 will make to the program including binding bids and putting up collateral before bidding, which will deter out-of-area companies from undercutting local established provider that serve the community.
- You can also send a brief email to the Health LA introducing yourself, explaining the above and asking for co-sponsorship of HR 1717.
YOUR MESSAGE:
- This bill is consistent with Congress’ original intent: to create a program that is based on competition while maintaining beneficiary access to quality items and services.
- While we have opposed the CMS-designed bidding model since its inception given its many flaws and destructive implementation, we are not opposed to real competition and have done our part to construct an alternative program that sets fair rates in a transparent, responsible manner.
- If you’re a provider directly impacted by Round 1 or 2 of the program, explain what your company has done to survive its impact – layoffs, branch closures, service/delivery changes, etc.
- For those Congressional districts not in bidding areas, remind them that this program will negatively affect ALL providers and consumers of HME services – it threatens to dismantle the entire HME infrastructure, the local, community-invested providers and those depending on their services. The perceived savings are very attractive to other payers and Medicaid programs with little knowledge and false perceptions about the program’s design and sustainability.
If you have any questions about the MPP program, the legislative process or contacts with legislators, please contact OAMES executive director Kam Yuricich at 614-876-2424 or kam@oames.org.