Local Home Medical Equipment Provider Details “suicide Bidding” Impact In New Podcast

May 5, 2010 - PRLog -- (Raleigh and Matthews, N.C.) North Carolina’s leader in home medical equipment advocacy and education, NCAMES, has published the first two podcasts in a series of educational shorts detailing how restrictive Medicare regulations are creating a monopoly and threatening to cost nearly 1,500 jobs statewide.

“Suicide Bidding” features Franklin Trammell, president of Carolina's Home Medical Equipment, Inc. in Matthews discussing the restrictive bidding process that decides which home medical equipment (HME) providers can service seniors and patients in need who use Medicare to pay for their in-home care. In the podcast, Trammell discusses how the bidding rules – enacted in October 2009 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Washington, D.C. – are forcing “suicide bidding” by small local companies like his, pushing them out of business and creating a monopoly of out-of-state HME providers of in-home oxygen systems, wheelchairs and other essential equipment.

According to Trammell, HME businesses aren’t bidding based on costs, but rather are bidding in desperation. “If they don’t win a bid … it’s a bullet to the head; if they do win a bid, it’s like having terminal cancer,” he said.

The second podcast, “H.R. 3790” features NCAMES Executive Director Beth Bowen explaining the background and intended impact of H.R. 3790, proposed legislation to fix major flaws in the Medicare bidding process. Currently, the legislation has 228 signatures in the U.S. House, with support from 9 of 13 members of the North Carolina congressional delegation, and efforts are underway to draft companion legislation in the Senate.

“If H.R. 3790 does not pass, we’re looking at the end of small businesses in the HME sector, period,” Bowen said, explaining that the 2009 Medicare bidding rules were a misguided attempt to bleed savings from an already over-regulated sector of the national health care industry.

“The feedback already from the Federal government itself, the Congressional Budget Office, is indisputable in that it clearly shows that the program is not meeting Congress' original intent to save money,” she said, adding, “the truly bipartisan H.R. 3790 takes a practical approach to reducing Medicare reimbursements to home medical equipment providers while protecting patient access to qualified, accredited home medical providers in North Carolina.”

Both podcasts are downloadable from the NCAMES website, www.ncames.org, in the News & Information section on the “Member Spotlight” page.

ABOUT NCAMES
With close to 300 member companies and growing, the North Carolina Association for Medical Equipment Services (NCAMES) is the statewide leader in preserving access to safe, affordable, and therapeutic home medical equipment. We provide advocacy and education to home medical equipment (HME) providers statewide dedicated to helping North Carolinas growing senior population and patients of all ages gain more mobility and experience a high quality of life in the comfort and privacy of their own homes. NCAMES was instrumental in passing the nations first HME licensure law which has been working to ensure quality home health care since 1995, and fully supports pending legislation H.R. 3790 to continue HME access for patients in need. For more information, visit www.ncames.org or call (919)-387-1221.