Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and this September is one of those times, say many industry advocates including the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare).

As you read this, the US Senate is working hard to wrap up business left unfinished before its August recess, and among the many complex pieces of legislation at the top of the Senators’ priority lists is finding agreement on a Medicare prescription drug bill. With elections coming up, no legislator in his or her right mind wants to explain to Baby Boomers and seniors—who tend to make up a greater percentage of the vote in non-Presidential elections—why the Senate could not get this bill passed when the House got its Medicare bill passed way back in June.

Worse yet, many Senators worry that telling voters they had to veto a Medicare prescription drug bill because it contains a provision about competitive bidding for DME will not cut it. Few laypeople know what DME is, whereas anyone who has ever visited a pharmacy knows about the cost of prescription drugs.

Furthermore, to the layperson—and many legislators who really should know better—competitive bidding sounds like mom and apple pie all rolled into one. Making companies compete for business is a cornerstone of capitalism, and capitalism is a large part of the democratic history of our nation. To oppose it brings up images of socialized medicine in Canada and Britain, with long waits and poor service.

To make competitive bidding go away for good, the HME industry faces the herculean task of turning public opinion against it. It must get the word out to voters, as well as legislators, that competitive bidding is actually a misnomer.

When the government, instead of market forces, constructs an artificial “competitive” bidding situation, companies that fail to win bids often go out of business and after a few years, the competition that kept prices low and service high has actually been reduced.

In addition, the public should also know about the studies AAHomecare and the new Coalition for Access to Medical Services, Equipment, and Technology (CAMSET) are using to demonstrate how competitive bidding will actually expand the CMS bureaucracy by 1,626 employees, virtually eliminating any savings realized.

This is why the efforts of providers such as Vince DeStigter of Western Health Care in Jackson, Calif, are as critical as the efforts of providers who are flying to Washington, DC, this month to lobby their Senators and Representatives. DeStigter uses a public television show to educate his community about the problems with competitive bidding and then uses the letters of HME consumers to influence his legislators.

But as an industry we could do more. Imagine what would happen if Tom Brokaw’s “Fleecing of America Report” on NBC’s Nightly News told how the competitive bidding provision in the House Medicare bill could actually make many HME-dependent seniors across America trade the service they get with their walkers, commodes, and wheelchairs for a meager prescription drug benefit and a much larger CMS bureaucracy.

That is a news story I would love to see.

Lena Lindahl
llindahl@medpubs.com