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Senior News January, 2003 Vol. 22. No. 1
Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.
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Humboldt Senior Resource Center Back issues Table of Contents
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Opinion Competitive bidding could hurt small suppliers by Ron Biasca Many of you may be aware of the Medicare prescription drug bill which Congress has been working on since April 2002. Within this bill is a provision called competitive bidding. Congress plans to use competitive bidding in the home medical equipment industry to save money to help pay for the Medicare prescription plan. The concept of competitive bidding is built on the payer (the government) promising much greater volume to a few providers in exchange for a lower per unit reimbursement rate. This freezes many providers out of the market. In doing so millions of elderly patients will be forced to change providers to get their home medical needs met. The patients and providers that are excluded both lose. Why competitive bidding is such a bad idea 1. Competitive bidding means patients will have a dramatically reduced choice of home medical equipment providers. Medicare generally does not limit beneficiary's access to physicians and hospitals, and it should not begin doing so for home-care providers. 2. Competitive bidding, by necessity, will result in a substantially lower level of personal service and patient attention. Service and personal care are critical components of the successful delivery of home care, to which virtually every wheelchair user, oxygen patient or senior citizen with the needs for daily living aids can attest. If reimbursements are reduced, providers are left with little choice but to reduce the level of service they provide. 3. Competitive bidding will curtail the innovation in home-care products and result in a lower quality of life for the patient. Simple economics dictate this to be true. As reimbursements are forced down, manufacturers will have no economic incentive to continue to develop new products. 4. Competitive bidding will funnel most of the home-care business to large national chains, eliminating small businesses from the local landscape. Small business is an integral component of every community and should be preserved, not attacked by government bureaucrats. 5. There is no evidence that competitive bidding lowers government expenditures. We are all aware of government administrative costs. A "bidding bureaucracy" for Medicare is the last thing this country needs. The free market has proven time and time again that it is the absolute best way to assure value. The current competitive bidding proposal is anti-choice, anti-small business and anti-American. Please urge your senators and representatives to oppose efforts to implement competitive bidding. Medi-Cal cuts Among the budget cuts proposed for Medi-Cal are elimination of some optional services like medical supplies for adults above age 21 and not in a long-term care facility. The elimination is proposed to take effect on April 1. The California Association of Medical Products Suppliers. vigorously opposes the elimination of medical supplies as an optional benefit. Ron Biasca is vice president of Broadway Medical Service & Supply, Inc. of Eureka, a long-time advertiser in Senior News. For more information call him |
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