Homecare Provider Testifies on Downside of Medicare ‘Competitive’ Bidding Program Before House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A home medical
equipment provider testifies today about the negative impact of
Medicare’s controversial “competitive” bidding program for durable
medical equipment and services.

Karen A. Lerner, a registered nurse and wound care specialist at
Allcare Medical, in Sayreville, NJ, will tell the House Energy and
Commerce Subcommittee on Health that the bidding program, as
designed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “will
not achieve its desired outcomes and will in fact reduce access to
care for Medicare beneficiaries, lower the quality of that care,
increase costs and kill jobs.”  Lerner is a member of the
American Association for Homecare and the Jersey Association of
Medical Equipment Services. See statement below and see full
testimony at www.aahomecare.org.

Providers of home medical equipment serve the medical needs of
millions of Americans who require oxygen equipment and therapy,
mobility assistive technologies, medical supplies, inhalation drug
therapy, home infusion, and other durable medical equipment,
therapies, services, and supplies in the home.

The “competitive” bidding program for home medical equipment and
services is scheduled to take effect in nine metropolitan
statistical areas in the U.S. in January 2011 including Charlotte,
Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City, Miami,
Orlando, Pittsburgh, and Riverside, Calif.  An additional 91
areas are scheduled to start the bidding program later in 2011.

A study conducted by health care economic consulting firm Dobson
| DaVanzo & Associates, released yesterday, found that the
Medicare bidding program for durable medical equipment may limit
Medicare beneficiaries’ access to home medical equipment and
services and could reduce the quality of products that Medicare
consumers rely on. (See text of study at

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