DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Window Open until December 21, 2009
CMS has officially opened the bidding window for the Round 1 Rebid of the Medicare durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) competitive bidding program, and bids are due by December 21, 2009. By way of background, under competitive bidding, only suppliers who are successful bidders will be eligible to furnish certain categories of DMEPOS to Medicare beneficiaries in certain geographic areas (with very limited exceptions). Successful bidders will be paid based on the median of the winning suppliers’ bids for each of the selected items in the region, rather than the Medicare fee schedule or supplier bid amount. All suppliers interested in submitting bids must register with CMS’s contractor by November 4, 2009; suppliers that do not register cannot bid and are not eligible for contracts. The deadline for submitting hardcopy financial documents for the “covered document review” process, under which CMS will notify suppliers of any missing financial documents, is November 21, 2009 (note that CMS will not provide information to bidders on whether submitted documents are acceptable, accurate or meet applicable requirements). For detailed instructions and guidance related to submitting bids, see the Competitive Bidding Implementation Contractor (CBIC) website; other background information regarding the DMEPOS competitive bidding program is available here.
