What: Medicare DMEPOS Round Two Competitive Bidding: The Costs and Consequences
When: August 22, 2011, 2:00 pm ET
Who:
Eli Lehrer, Vice President of Washington, DC Operations, The Heartland Institute (moderator)
Steve Pociask, President, American Consumer Institute
Grace-Marie Turner, President, Galen Institute
Benjamin Zycher, Senior Fellow, Pacific Research Institute
Dial-in Number: 641/715-3200
Conference Code: 833365#
For more information, contact Eli Lehrer at 202/615-0586, [email protected]
The following statements from participants in the press briefing may be used for attribution. For additional comment, contact participants directly. All will be available over the weekend.
“The structure of the CMS auction for the provision of medical devices and equipment is seriously flawed, in ways yielding highly inefficient pricing and shortages of important health care products. Over the longer term this poorly designed process will result in underinvestment in the research and development of new medical technologies, an adverse effect that will be borne disproportionately by vulnerable patient subgroups both current and future. This auction design is yet another example of how the unthinking pursuit of narrow budget savings produces perverse results and diverts attention from more useful policy reforms.”
Benjamin Zycher
Senior Fellow
Pacific Research Institute
818/706-1028
[email protected]
“The current Medicare competitive bidding process is a good idea gone bad. Although the central idea of having DMEPOS providers compete for Medicare dollars is a sound one, the particular process is so poorly designed it is almost sure to result in disaster.”
Eli Lehrer
Vice President of Washington, DC Operations
The Heartland Institute
202/615-0586
[email protected]
“The CMS bidding process is so fatally flawed that it will fail to find sustainable market prices for medical equipment. This will create market shortages that will push efficient suppliers to bankruptcy and mean that many patients will not have access to medical supplies for home use. The consequence of these shortages will lead to medical complications and increased hospitalizations, sending them from low-cost to high-cost care.”
Steve Pociask
President
American Consumer Institute
703/471-3954
[email protected]
The Heartland Institute is a 27-year-old national nonprofit organization with offices in Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; Austin, Texas; Tallahassee, Florida; and Columbus, Ohio. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
