Medicare-Medicaid Center Rebuffs House Members' Request

Could it be the future shock of Obamacare? A Florida health-care association says Medicare and Medicaid are taking stonewalling to new heights.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rejected a request from 136 members of Congress to bring greater transparency into the bid process for home health-care contracts.

The request, signed by 12 House members from Florida, wanted CMS to disclose the list of providers whose bids were used to determine the single-payment amounts in nine bidding areas.

CMS officials responded that divulging such information "would result in beneficiary confusion, undermining the orderly and effective implementation of the program." Further, CMS said disclosure could "jeopardize the procurement process itself."

But Rob Brant, president of the Miami-based Accredited Medical Equipment Providers, expressed ongoing concerns about the CMS bidding process.

"Medicare allowed out-of-area, inexperienced, financially bankrupt companies to offer low bids. We know this because Rotech, a national company which will file bankruptcy if they cannot pay back more than $500 million in loans, said it was offered 17 bid contracts," Brant told Sunshine State News.

"Medicare is basically parading an unachievable 32 percent savings of the program, but they will not make public the names of the companies which created the single payment amount until it is too late for Congress to act," Brant said.

CMS plans to release the names of contract winners by the end of September; however, there is no statutory requirement that it do so.

The House members from Florida who signed the letter to CMS are: Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Ginny Brown-Waite, Ted Deutch, Alan Grayson, Alcee Hastings, Ron Klein, Suzanne Kosmas, Bill Posey, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Cliff Stearns, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Bill Young.