[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6041-6042]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REPEAL DME COMPETITIVE BIDDING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Hartzler). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Altmire) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ALTMIRE. Madam Speaker, 4 years ago I began to express my 
concerns about the competitive bidding program that CMS proposed for 
durable medical equipment. The goal of the program was laudable--to 
save money and to cut waste, fraud, and abuse from the Medicare 
program--but the implementation of the program has been fraught with 
problems.
  This issue is of particular importance to me because the Pittsburgh 
region, which I represent, was one of the first nine regions chosen by 
CMS to implement the competitive bidding demonstration. As I learned 
more about the design of the program, it became clear that CMS did not 
foresee the unintended consequences that could result, including the 
possibility that patients could lose the personal relationship they've 
developed with their local provider, in turn compromising their quality 
of care; or the possibility that small suppliers, which make up well 
over 90 percent of the Nation's medical equipment providers, would not 
be able to compete in the new market.
  I also realized that western Pennsylvania would be disproportionately 
impacted by competitive bidding because of our large Medicare 
population and the growing medical device industry that is key to the 
success of our region's economy.
  After a poor start to the competitive bidding program in 2008, 
Congress intervened and passed legislation that I helped introduce to 
direct CMS to delay the program for 18 months. Critical flaws in the 
initial bidding process produced fewer competitors, fewer home care 
services, and a substantial decrease in the quality of care offered to 
seniors and individuals with disabilities. Congress also instructed CMS 
to redesign the program to avoid these programs when it conducted the 
re-bid.
  Last fall, CMS launched the re-bid and this past January the program 
went into effect in the nine regions in the country, including western 
Pennsylvania. In the first few months of implementation, the worst 
fears expressed by patients, providers, and Members of Congress from 
both sides of the aisle have been realized. It is clear that despite 
the delay and the direction from Congress, no significant improvements 
have been made to the program or the bidding process. Providers who 
have served beneficiaries for years are closing their doors, and 
patients have been left confused and unsure where to turn for their 
care.
  While CMS hopes the program will ensure beneficiary access to quality 
medical supplies and services and improve the effectiveness of 
payments, the results suggest otherwise. So 2 weeks ago, CMS announced 
it would delay the second round of its competitive bidding program for 
6 months,

[[Page 6042]]

until the summer of 2013. Additionally, the chief Medicare expert at 
the Congressional Budget Office recently said the CMS competitive 
bidding process is ``seriously flawed.''
  This is a good sign, but the round two delay does nothing to help the 
beneficiaries and small businesses that have already been negatively 
impacted by round one. The program continues to be a bad deal for 
seniors and small business owners. That's why I joined with my 
colleague from Pennsylvania, Glenn Thompson, to introduce legislation 
to repeal the DME competitive bidding program. Our bill would fully 
repeal the program in a budget-neutral manner, not adding one penny to 
the Federal deficit. To date, we have 75 bipartisan cosponsors and over 
30 advocacy groups that have endorsed our legislation.
  I cannot support the DME competitive bidding program when it has 
become evident the program will unravel the DME small business 
community and compromise quality of care for seniors and others who 
rely on durable medical equipment devices. I will continue to work with 
Congressman Thompson to advance this legislation, and I would ask my 
colleagues to join us in this effort to repeal DME competitive bidding.

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