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Time to Raise the Volume Level
Memorial Day Recess is Coming - Let's STOP Competitive Bidding
It is critical that House leadership move quickly to advance and pass H.R. 3790. We must help motivate this action by our grassroots call to House leadership, and by raising local awareness on the impact competitive bidding will have on job losses.
The HME industry is mounting a unified grassroots campaign over the Memorial Day congressional recess to accomplish two goals:
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Increase cosponsors on H.R. 3790 by asking the remaining representatives who have not joined the legislation to sign on, and
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Asking the current cosponsors of H.R. 3790 to contact their House leadership to urge that H.R. 3790 move forward without delay.
Several national groups and state associations are encouraging all providers and their employees to make calls, set up appointments, and e-mail their representatives next week while legislators are in their home districts. Please use the following talking points in your e-mail messages.
To representatives not currently cosponsoring H.R. 3790:
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Loss of jobs as a result of small business closings will negatively impact communities with loss of tax revenue that could negatively impact local economic recovery. Nationwide, competitive bidding will eliminate over 100,000 jobs. Use the Jobs Handout to highlight the number of jobs that will be lost once the program is implemented in your competitive bid area (CBA). Providers who serve in a non-CBA should highlight the fact that the Handout does not include rural areas, which will also be impacted when Medicaid and third party payers pick up on the "suicide" bid prices. NOTE: It is crucial to stress this point! The government is working to create more jobs, yet they will be eliminating more with competitive bidding! See more in the story below. -
This competitive bidding program restricts access and choice for medical equipment and supplies .
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It will trigger a race to the bottom in terms of quality; i.e. less expensive items will be provided to patients. With an elimination of suppliers, expedient deliveries of items and services will be eliminated and Medicare costs will increase.
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The bid program is anti-competitive and reduces the number of competitors. During Round One, 80 to 90 percent of HME suppliers would have been barred from the Medicare program.
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At a time when the senior population is growing by more than 7,000 daily, elimination of 90% of the supply side will result in serious access and service disruption issues for patients.
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This program will result in the loss of more than 100,000 jobs and the closure of more than 8,000 small businesses. This added to the high cost of implementation is not the right direction in the current economic recovery.
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The bidding program will increase Medicare costs by disrupting the continuum and coordination of care between doctors, discharge planners, patients, and HME providers. In turn, it will lead to longer, more expensive hospital stays and more physician office visits, nursing home admissions, and emergency room visits.
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We want to assure you that the home medical equipment sector will have an appropriate offset as part of any legislation that may move through Congress. The Congressional Budget Office is working through this issue now. And please remember, the reasons for enacting competitive bidding in 2003 have already been achieved: Congress has made significant cuts to Medicare durable medical equipment reimbursement rates in recent years. Additionally Medicare's new quality standards, new mandatory accreditation, and surety bond requirements ALL took effect last year as well as increased scrutiny and detection of fraud and abuse through already-implemented measures like RAC audits and prepay audits.
To Representatives Already Signed On To HR 3790:
I appreciate your support of H.R. 3790, the bill to eliminate the competitive bidding program and preserve access to homecare. I urge you now to help us work toward final passage of this bill to stop the short-sighted programby reaching out to House leadership and asking them to take action on H.R. 3790 immediately following the Memorial Day recess. Time is critical. CMS is moving forward quickly with this program and bid rates in initial areas are scheduled to be implemented on January 1, 2011.
We must protect our patient population, and the loss of over 100,000 jobs and more than 8,000 small businesses across the country will reduce the supplier community by 90% at a time when the senior population is growing by more than 7,000 a day. Loss of jobs as a result of small business closings will negatively impact communities with loss of tax revenue that could negatively impact local economic recovery.
I want to assure you that the home medical equipment sector will have an appropriate offset as part of any legislation that may move through Congress. The Congressional Budget Office is working through this issue now. And please remember, the reasons for enacting competitive bidding in 2003 have already been achieved. Congress has made significant cuts to Medicare durable medical equipment reimbursement rates in recent years. Additionally Medicare's new quality standards, new mandatory accreditation, and surety bond requirements all took effect last year as well as increased scrutiny and detection of fraud and abuse through already-implemented measures like RAC audits and prepay audits.
Please urge House leadership to include H.R. 3790 in an appropriate legislative vehicle that is moving on the House floor.
House Leadership Includes:
Democratic Offices - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Sander Levin, and Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman.
Republican Offices - Minority Leader John Boehner, Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Dave Camp, and Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Joe Barton.
Government Wants to Create Jobs, While CB Eliminates Them - Contact your Local Media and Raise Awareness!
In yesterday's evening edition of the Legislative Update, VGM reminded providers that the competitive bidding will cost more than 100,000 jobs nationwide, and that the program must be stopped. As members of Congress are working to create more jobs in the country using such legislation as the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loophole Act, H.R. 4213, providers need to ask: "Why are they trying to create jobs as thousands of jobs will be eliminated with competitive bidding?"
According to the House Ways and Means Committee, this bill includes provisions that would "promote American job creation." Providers need to raise local awareness of the fact that while the government is trying to create jobs, competitive bidding will create JOB LOSS! If a local manufacturing company was going out of business in your area, it would be on the front page of your newspaper. We must make every effort to make the jobs lost from competitive bidding a top-priority news. Providers are urged to contact your local media to get this message out.
To assist with raising awareness to your local media, VGM has provided a template news release regarding jobs that will be lost because of competitive bidding. To download the template, click here. Simply plug your competitive bidding area into the article where appropriate, as well as the coinciding jobs data from the Jobs Handout.
To view the Jobs Handout, click here.
How to pitch a story to your media provider:
When contacting your local media, remember the following tips:
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Give them a brief and to the point overview of the issue.
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Provide them with a list of contacts and phone numbers.
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Give them a reason why you think this story would be of interest to their readers. Show them how patients are affected, whether it is positively or negatively.
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Write a follow-up letter.
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Be polite and persistent!
With 242 cosponsors on H.R. 3790, we can't drop the baton now! Let's finish this race and STOP competitive bidding. Pull out all your efforts to get this program repealed! Use the Memorial Day Recess (May 28 - June 7) to meet with your representative and to get the message about jobs out to your local media.
We can get this done! |
