Medicare boasts of supply bids - TheHill.com

Medicare boasts of supply bids - TheHill.com: "Medical equipment suppliers are lining up in droves to take part in a new Medicare competitive-bidding program the industry has sharply criticized for being exclusionary, according to a senior official. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) acting Deputy Administrator Herb Kuhn said on Wednesday that the agency received more than 6,300 bids in the first round of the program to provide equipment ranging from oxygen tanks to power wheelchairs to walkers. That level of interest, Kuhn said, represents the industry’s desire to stay in the Medicare market and suggests that the program will have the desired effect of generating competition among providers. To the industry, though, the number only means that suppliers are going along because they have no other choice."