AAHomecare: CMS Disqualified 63 Percent of Round One Bidders

July 1, 2008

AAHomecare reported in May that 630 of the 1,005 bidders in the first round of competitive bidding were disqualified.

According to the organization, senior officials for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) likened the process to "turning down college applicants who forget to include their SAT scores in their applications."

"The fact that CMS disqualified 63 percent of the 1,005 bidders in round one suggests that this whole process got seriously off track somewhere," said Tyler Wilson, president of AAHomecare. "Blaming the bidders is not going to rectify the problems and restore the integrity of the competitive bidding program. Congress must act to put this whole program on hold and get to the bottom of the problems, which the industry has carefully documented."