When providers in Miami got the rare chance to meet a Congresswoman at her home, they took the opportunity to talk about competitive bidding. Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla) [pictured] opened her house to a group of concerned DME Providers in the Miami MSA. “The group spoke for nearly an hour about the gross negligence and mismanagement of the competitive bidding implementation contractor [CBIC], Palmetto, GBA,” said Rob Brant, president of the Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of America Inc, Miami. “They discussed how 501 oxygen providers in South Florida were reduced to only 44 bid winners—winners which included unlicensed, out-of-state companies.”

According to Brant, Ros-Lehtinen sympathized with attendees’ frustrations concerning mistakes which likely led to the majority of bidders being erroneously disqualified. Providers asked Ros-Lehtinen to delay competitive bidding for at least 6 months so that Congress could assess the CBIC’s work, and properly analyze the true economic impact of the program. 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.