Laboratory News

Cities "Safe" From Medicare Competitive Bid Demo Revealed

Last Wednesday's Bidders' Conference in San Diego turned out to be a day of disappointment for most of the approximately 100 people who attended. The event, conducted by officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services  and its contractor, RTI International , was an eight-hour affair that was supposed to provide information about how the Competitive Bidding Demonstration Project for Laboratory Testing Services  would be implemented.

Dark Daily spoke to a number of individuals who spent the day at the Bidder's Conference. They expressed frustration about the complexity of the bidding process as designed and explained at the Bidders' Conference. Further, they observed that, over the course of the day, attendees identified numerous situations in the bidding process which were not addressed by the bidding documents. As these situations were pointed out to the CMS and RTI representatives, not only was little useful guidance offered, but often, the room was told "to put that in writing and send it to us." As one attendee said, "What does ‘put it in writing mean?' CMS did not tell us whether they would actually respond to these written requests for information."

As described during the Bidders' Conference, the steps required to compile and submit a bid are complex and highly detailed. Not only will the bid amounts be evaluated, but a "Bid Evaluation Panel" (BEP) will study the bids and use criteria to "recommend" individual bidding labs to CMS. That was a source of frustration for those attending the Bidders' Conference, since CMS would not provide much information as to who would sit on the BEP and what criteria they would use to determine which laboratory bidders would be recommended to CMS.

If there was a bright spot, it was that, at one point during the day, CMS officials revealed a list of SMAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) that were not likely to be selected as a site for the laboratory competitive bidding demonstration site. The reason is because these sites are currently involved in a competitive bidding program for DME (durable medical equipment). The 10 SMAs are:

• Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC
• Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN
• Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH
• Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
• Kansas City, MO-KS
• Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL
• Orlando, FL
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
• San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo, PR

Laboratories serving these MSAs can breathe easy for awhile. Meanwhile, the demonstration project for the San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos SMA will move forward. Bids must be submitted by February 15, 2008. Implementation of the competitive bidding demonstration in the San Diego site will commence on July 1, 2008. The Dark Report will have more detailed information about this situation in its upcoming issue.

Related Information

CMS Information on the Competitive Bidding Demonstration project, including the Bidder's Package