On May 19, 2008, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the names of the 325 suppliers of Medicare durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS) that signed contracts to provide medical equipment and supplies to beneficiaries in the first round of the DMEPOS competitive bidding program.
According to a Press Release and Fact Sheet, the bids in the first round of the DMEPOS competitive bidding program will result in beneficiaries seeing an average savings of 26 percent. In the Press Release, CMS also reports that it received bids from 1,005 suppliers and offered contracts to 23 percent of the suppliers that submitted bids. Further, CMS reports that 61 percent of the bids submitted in the first round of the DMEPOS competitive bidding program were priced higher than the winning range, and just over half of those high-priced submissions were disqualified because they failed to meet other bid requirements. The remaining 16 percent of bids would have been in the winning range had they not been disqualified.
In the Press Release, CMS also announces that it is extending the deadline for suppliers in the 70 second round metropolitan statistical areas to become accredited. According to CMS, suppliers must be accredited or have applied for accreditation by July 21, 2008 (formerly May 14, 2008) and the final accreditation deadline for the second round of the DMEPOS competitive bidding program is now January 14, 2009 (rather than October 31, 2008).
