Traffic on bid website 'positive'

WASHINGTON - The HME industry's competitive bidding website, www.dmecbpeducation.com, has had 10,762 unique visitors year to date.

In the first 10 days of June alone, with the opening of the bid window looming on July 16, there were 1,629 unique visitors.

“I think we always want more, but we feel pretty positive about these numbers,” said Kim Brummett, vice preisdent of regulatory affairs for AAHomecare.

A group of stakeholders comprised of AAHomecare, the Council for Respiratory Care, VGM & Associates and the Healthcare Nutrition Council launched the website in April to educate providers about changes to Round 2021of the program and to help them prepare their bids.

One of the more important features of the website is calculators that allow providers to see how the new lead-item bidding methodology will impact rates for other related items in the 16 product categories. Those calculators have been downloaded 4,224 times since April 24, with the calculator for CPAP and RAD downloaded the most (701), followed by commode chairs (381) and oxygen (363).

“Once you download a calculator, you don't have to do it again, so to me that's a good sign that a lot of providers are pulling them,” Brummett said. “There are manufacturers and consultants pulling them, too, but we feel they're mostly providers.”

In addition to the website, stakeholders hosted a “Bid Smart” Summit in Nashville on June 5 that drew about 130 attendees. Plans are in the works for a second summit in August in Dallas—stay tuned, Brummett says.

“We just keep saying, 'You need to bid smart,'” she said.