American Association for Homecare Applauds President Obama's Plan to Aid Small ...(easing the length and cost of hospital s...),Health

Date:3/18/2009

easing the length and cost of hospital stays as the number of home medical equipment providers shrinks, the bidding program will simply shift rising costs to other parts of Medicare. "Competitive" bidding is not the solution to Medicare's reform -- and it is not the answer for patients and seniors.

The initial roll-out of the current program in 2008 eliminated 90% of qualified home medical equipment and service providers from serving Medicare's seniors. As predicted by the American Association for Homecare, the program had a negative impact on patients and disastrous results for the thousands of local providers -- mostly small businesses -- that were excluded from Medicare as a result of the first round of bidding. The current structure of the bidding program bears no resemblance to the original demonstrations program conducted ten years ago in Polk County, Florida and San Antonio, Texas.

Fortunately, Congress stepped in to delay the program last July. In January, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new rule to implement the program. The Association and its members are asking the President and Congress to rescind this "competitive" bidding rule, which would give Secretary of Health and Human Services designate Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and director of the White House Office of Health Reform, Nancy Ann Minn DeParle, the time required to closely examine this rule and the negative impacts it will have on patients and businesses. For more information about the bidding issue, visit: http://www.aahomecare.org/competitivebidding.

Home medical equipment and care is already the most cost-effective, slowest-growing portion of Medicare spending, increasing only 0.75 percent per year according to the most recent National Health Expenditures data. That compares to more than 6 percent annual growth for Medicare spending overa
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SOURCE American Association for Homecare Copyright©2009 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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