Government Sells Out Seniors

Medicare Competitive Bidding Bad Policy

Millions of seniors are bound to be caught off-guard when they try to obtain home medical equipment in the future. Congress and the current president seem to be fairly resolute on sticking with current cuts to the Medicare program. Already set in motion is the plan to eliminate payments for oxygen equipment after 36 months of rental. The oxygen equipment then becomes the property of the Medicare patient. Medicare beneficiaries are saddled with a piece of equipment that they cannot fix or service and only has a limited use. This is outside of the Medicare Competitive Bid program. This cut has already been signed into effect.

The Medicare Competitive Bidding Program takes bids from vendors interested in accepting Medicare's proposed pricing after each business bids against the other. Round One of competitive bidding is over. Medicare originally speculated that around 6500 companies would participate. The actual number ending up being close to 1500. In an error plagued system, hundreds of bidders were disallowed. The actual number of companies that won contracts was 325. What kind of service component do you think this allows for?

The original premise for the plan may be sound. The original plan was for Medicare to compile similar savings to the VA Competitive Bid Process. The VA medical equipment program is currently set up on a competitive bid. There is no doubt that there is a significant cost savings in the plan to operate under this system. I hope that you don't have to be exposed to care provided to one of our veterans. This program is a disgrace in terms of quality care being provided to the people that have given meritorious service to our country. That is where our Medicare program is headed. The new Administrator of Medicare, Kerry Weems, seems to be ecstatic over the cost savings that will be available.