Legislative Update/Competitive Bidding

VGM is 100% Against
National Competitive Bidding

Make no mistake about it: VGM is 100 percent against National Competitive Bidding.

We’ve spent a great deal of time and money working against it since last summer. We’re in this battle for the long haul and to suggest that it “hopefully won’t happen” is admitting (or hoping for) defeat. Offering any “just-in-case” alternatives is providing those in Congress who favor competitive bidding with the ammunition they need to push it forward.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the Northwood Corporation’s position on NCB that was distributed to members of Congress. In a letter to the VGM Group, Ken Fasse (Northwood’s president) stated that “Northwood did erroneously originally disseminate an inaccurate position paper.” I’ll assume that this was the one urging Congress to mandate NCB. He then stated that within three business days, they circulated a corrected position paper that said “Northwood Inc. does not urge Congress to pass a competitive bidding provision.”

Sounds like they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. If they are against NCB, if they are staunch in this stand, who originally put those words in the “inaccurate” position paper? It hardly matters though, because both position papers claim a “20 percent savings” attained by a large national provider using Northwood, then go on to list nine points advocating networks as the solution in a NCB environment. Suggesting substantial cost-savings and offering the framework for the program: Is that defending the independent HME or is it self-serving? I’ll let you decide.

VGM’s HOMELINK^® is the nation’s largest network. I’ll repeat myself. HOMELINK^® is the nation’s largest network and we are 100 percent against NCB. We believe it will be a fiasco for patient access, small business, and in the end, will not “save” enough money for the government to justify the upheaval it will surely cause.

In our fight against NCB, we’ve made numerous trips to Washington, hired John Gallagher (vice president of government relations, who works what seems like 24 hours of every day against NCB), printed and distributed more than 150,000 patient advocate tri-folds, hosted Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, on Christmas Eve, produced and distributed our Grassroots Lobbying Package, attended every state association show we can to “rally the troops,” organized and accompanied a group of Tennessee HMEs to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s office, made available DC Link™ to make it easy to communicate with elected officials, met with the Congressional Budget Office along with AAHomecare and other representatives of the industry to present our case against NCB, and much more.

Our industry needs to work TOGETHER. To send the message that we are not is dangerous. This is not the time to go it alone. It is no time to attempt to take advantage of an unrealistic opportunity and risk an entire industry. By all means GET INVOLVED in this fight. Contact AAHomecare or VGM and learn how you can help. If we all work together and work hard we can win this battle.

To access extensive reference materials relative to competitive bidding, access to to your elected officials, and much more, visit our D.C. Link web site.