MEDICAL DEVICES
Medicare program hopes to block fraud
A new Medicare program starts Tuesday in South Florida that officials say will cut prices and reduce fraud. It also drastically reduces the number of durable medical equipment suppliers.
Posted on Tue, Jul. 01, 2008
BY JOHN DORSCHNER
After battles in the courts and Congress failed to halt the move, a new Medicare program intended to stop fraud and lower equipment prices is scheduled to start Tuesday.
The program will launch in 10 areas nationwide, including South Florida.
The federal program is designed so that only 325 suppliers throughout the nation -- winners of competitive bidding -- will be allowed to provide 10 key pieces of durable medical equipment, also known as DME, to Medicare recipients.
In South Florida, beneficiaries should see an average savings of 30 percent in oxygen equipment and power wheelchairs, the federal agency announced in a press release.
Thousands of providers have been cut out of the program, and they filed lawsuits and lobbied hard in Congress to delay the action.
The House of Representatives voted for an 18-month delay, but in the Senate the measure failed by a single vote, said Rob Brant, a Miami DME provider who is president of the Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of America.
The group represents companies that lost the bidding process or didn't seek to compete.
''Unless there's a miracle delay in the next hour and 20 minutes, this is going to take effect,'' Brant said Monday.
There was no miracle.
Equipment companies had filed several lawsuits, but had not been able to get any judge to order a stay.
''It's going to be chaos'' on Tuesday, Brand predicted.
Some of the winners for oxygen equipment in Florida, for example, were not even licensed by the state of Florida.
However, a member of the organization representing the successful bidders said he was ready to go.
Jeff Holman of First Priority Medical Services in Hollywood, said: ''We've increased stock, we've added phone lines, as have all the members'' of the group, which calls itself Contracted Medical Equipment Suppliers.
For several years, Medicare has been trying to squeeze durable medical equipment providers in South Florida, where Medicare fraud runs about $1 billion a year, according to an estimate by the FBI.
Last year, Medicare reported about 2,700 DME firms were licensed in South Florida.
Fraud investigators found that 491 suppliers did not even maintain physical facilities or were not open when agents visited.
The federal agency decided that reducing the number of DME suppliers was the best way to combat fraud.
Paula Massey, a senior living in South Miami-Dade, applauded the move.
''We've had a lot of supplies billed in my name -- supplies for colonoscopies. A mystery cabinet for $5,000. Three times some company billed for a power wheelchair for me,'' Massey said.
''Medicare turned them down twice. The third time it paid. It's time they stopped all this fraud,'' he said.
Join the discussion
The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Not a registered user? It's Free!
Register here. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
