For all those durable medical equipment suppliers the party isn't over, but it's taking a hit. New rules regarding bidding for prices in regions will replace the former system that used "inflation-indexing" in an effort to "rein in prices," also read as reining in costs for the Federal government.
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2008/05/26/story2.
html?b=1211774400^1640079
My take? Well, it's not good for consumers who will be obliged to pay the difference of what is not covered, but it also hits the durable medical equipment suppliers who will face the risk of losing customers if they don't lower their prices. More importantly it addresses the license to print money that has been medicare certification for health services providers. Hopefully the proposed reductions in physician reimbursements (temporarily stalled) will also go into place. These changes will definitely and negatively impact consumers but it will perhaps encourage the "well I have mine now I begrudge you" mentality of all the groups previously protected from the exclusionomics, specifically those on Medicare. Changes in the Federal government whereby Federal employees, changes in the state governments, teacher's unions, all those who rah rah cost cutting efforts as long as it doesn't impact them should be next. The reason for this meanspirited support of cutting Medicare payments for durable equipment? Because until EVERYONE or near everyone is affected, US citizens won't act and certainly won't act on behalf of one another.
For those of you throwing around the negativity accusation and the cynic accusation, I am neither. Remember our housing crisis...no one was worried about people overpaying for pieces of real estate when it was their house selling for double, triple the price they paid. Nobody worried that a guy earning 75 grand a year really shouldn't be buying a house for six, seven or eight hundred thousand dollars. Realtors didn't discourage buyers from buying off more than they could chew, nope, they referred them to the "mortgage brokers", those who "worked with them" into bankruptcy. Not until this problem of the poor and undeserving started affecting the richer and more entitled did the difficulty get any attention. Same with health insurance. So come July 1, watch your durable medical equipment supplier...let's see.
