Rob Brant

Some people spend Mother's Day en­joy­ing the company of parents and children. However, when you are about to lose your business, you spend Mother's Day with DME brothers and sisters—and with a high-ranking Congress­woman.

Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla) from the 18th District opened her home to a group of concerned DME providers in the Miami MSA. Instead of talking about the joys of motherhood, they talked about the injustice of the current competitive bidding program. The group spoke for nearly an hour about the gross negligence and mismanagement of the competitive bidding implementation contractor, Palmetto, GBA. They discussed how 501 oxygen providers in South Florida were reduced to only 44 bid winners—winners that included unlicensed, out-of-state companies.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

The Congress­woman was discouraged by the news that CMS changed its own rules nearly 2 months after most bids were accepted by the CBIC, which led to the majority of bidders being erroneously disqualified. Attendees asked Ros-Lehtinen to delay the program for at least 6 months so that Congress could look at the CBIC's damaging mistakes, and assess the true economic impact of the program and how it will actually increase health care costs for patients. They also discussed how resources and costs of Medicare's Part A, home health, and hospital programs would increase rather than decrease under competitive bidding.

Since her election in 1989 to the US Con­gress, Ros-Lehtinen has been a strong advocate for the DME industry. On June 26, 2007, she cosponsored the Hob­son-Tanner bill (HR 1845). The timing was amazing, because last June most pro­viders in the Miami MSA were scrambling to get their bids ready by the first July 2007 deadline. Round one bidders still made time to encourage their Congress­woman to support the legislation. HR 1845 eventually stalled, but it would have allowed "any willing provider" to participate in round one.

South Florida DME providers have always been impressed by Ros-Lehtinen's own family struggle. Forced to flee with her family from the oppressive communist regime of Fidel Castro, Ros-Lehtinen became the first Hispanic woman, and first Cuban-American, elected to Con­gress. The group of DME providers greatly appreciated the opportunity to meet their Representative on a Sunday, a time usually reserved for immediate families. Ros-Lehtinen offered her support and told the group that she would address the issue as soon as she got back to Washington.

Rob Brant is president of the Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of America Inc, Miami. He can be reached via e-mail through the HME Today editor at .