In a Shift, Medicare Pushes Bids

[alp227]

Source: NY Times

The Obama administration said Wednesday that it would vastly expand the use of competitive bidding to buy medical equipment for Medicare beneficiaries after a one-year experiment saved money for taxpayers and patients without harming the quality of care.

The experiment represented a sharp break from the usual fee-for-service Medicare program, under which beneficiaries can choose any supplier or provider of goods and services. In the experiment, Medicare officials invited bids and awarded contracts to 356 suppliers of medical equipment in nine metropolitan areas, including Cleveland, Dallas, Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Riverside, Calif.

Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the pilot program had reduced Medicare costs by 42 percent, or $202 million, by securing lower prices and curbing “inappropriate utilization” of personal medical equipment in the nine markets.

The bulk of the savings came from oxygen equipment, power wheelchairs and mail-order test strips for people with diabetes.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/health/policy/medicare-to-expand-competitive-bidding.html

[SleeplessinSoCal]

1. Why wasn't this happening long before now?

[99th_Monkey]

3. The Wheels of Guv'ment turn slowly?

Maybe cuz there's an election coming up, with an electorate that
might actually REMEMBER that he did this, esp. when he points it
out on the campaign trail.

I'm still baffled by how politicians sort this shit out inside their bubble,
but I know it's not like I was taught in civics class.

Ooops. I just aged myself.

[apnu]

4. George W. Bush. That's why. (nt)

[99th_Monkey]

2. Damn, Obama's actually acting like a Democrat. Color me HAPPY, ecstatic even.

[drm604]

5. Isn't it funny how a Democrat is using the free market to hold down prices

while the Republicans passed Medicare part D with no-bid contracts.

This shows who's really interested in keeping costs down and who's interested in rewarding big business.

[sendero]

6. Local TV is littered...

.. with ads for power-chairs, diabetes supplies, CPAP supplies, catheters and other medical stuff that companies are apparently able to shill on TV and still make a profit from Medicare.

Therefore it is blatantly obvious that Medicare is paying way too much for this stuff.

[apnu]

7. This should be shouted in every corner of the country.

The oxygen tank example, saving the beneficIary almost 50% is amazing. And the Republicans are trying to repeal it!

[mopinko]

8. prices of medical equipment as the most bloated thing in the economy except

for bombs. a cpap machine costs $600-1200 on cpap.com. my insurance company paid over $2k. i can only imagine what medicare pays. my $400 phone is about a million times smarter/more complicated, so.....
if they can't squeeze some of that excess out, you know they are not trying.
big returns ahead on this road.