Get a Bigger BANG for the August Recess Buck

Problems mount with Round 2 of the DME bidding program and CMS is still in denial. In fact, CMS denies everything to do with the flawed program they designed except to tout its supposedly wild success.

The latest news is that a southern hospital can’t find contractors to provide service for the patients it is discharging, so the hospital is creating its own bidding program by inviting local DME providers to submit bids for direct payment by the hospital.

Circumventing Medicare’s own absurd rules in order to help patients go home from the hospital can’t be what Congress intended, yet the people we elected have refused to stop Round 2 from going any further.

Congress NEEDS TO HEAR from YOU.

Yes, YOU—the DME provider who has been devastated by the bidding program. Yes, YOU—the patient who has been denied access to the equipment you paid your Medicare premiums to receive.

We have a plan that takes advantage of the August congressional recess, but it will have no effect unless we have huge support from YOU—the providers, patients, discharge planners, social workers, caregivers, doctors, and everyone else being affected by Medicare’s inability to take care of its beneficiaries.

So here’s the deal. To get the biggest BANG from the dog days of August, sit in the cool of your office or home and call, fax, or email (or all three) your Representative and both of your Senators. Tell them Medicare’s bidding program is not working.  It’s failing the people Medicare is supposed to care for and the very people who voted these lawmakers into office.

We can stop this train wreck if we push back against Congress’s refusal to hear our concerns. Ask your Representative and your Senators if this is what they want—sick and elderly patients in distress because of the government’s actions.

We simply can’t afford to do nothing. What will it be? Will you call Congress, or will you hang up the “going out of business” sign?

Ready! Set! Dial 1-202-224-3121! Tell Congress you just can’t take it anymore.

Better still, go to your Representative’s and Senators’ local district office. If you’re a DME provider, take a patient affected by this badly mismanaged program with you and let them tell the story. Or take your competitors with you and tell all of your stories.

Above all, don’t wait for someone else to fix it. There is no one else. There is only YOU.

Resources

For tips on how to talk to Congress and be more effective in the political process, download our 10 Step Guides in the AAHomecare Grassroots Toolbox.

For details about the bidding program and the reasonable alternative, the market pricing program, go to www.aahomecare.org/advocacy.

Find your Representative and Senators’ phone numbers and email addresses in our congressional directory.