Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
In 2011, CMS created a demonstration to have competitive bidding for durable medical equipment (DME). Prior to the implementation of this program, CMS used an administrative fee schedule, similar to how physicians are currently reimbursed. How did this market-based solution fare? A paper by Newman, Barrette, and McGraves-Lloyd (2017) answers this question. We compared…
Previously I wrote about Medicare’s efforts to introduce competitive bidding for durable medical equipment (DME). Today I provide additional details on the program, an update of the initial competitive bidding implementation (Round 1) and a look ahead at the competitive bidding process in fiscal year (FY) 2013 (Round 2). In FY 2011 and 2012 (i.e.,…
In my opinion the answer is yes. A book by Coulam, Feldman and Dowd also would agree with me. Recently, Medicare began a competitive bidding process for durable medical equipment. Is it working? According to the Wall Street Journal, the answer is no. “Normally when the government wants to buy something, it asks companies how…
Medicare is a government-run insurance program. Can policy changes be made to add competition to Medicare, maintain quality and reduce cost? A book titled Bring Market Prices to Medicare argues that it can through a competitive bidding process. This book makes a number of sensible arguments which I review today. The main proposal of the…