Are you beside yourself, too?

I heard from a reader in the wake of CMS releasing the new payment amounts for the Round 2 re-compete.

The reader wondered if there was a Freedom of Information Act request that someone (anyone!) could file to find out who submitted low bids, whether or not they accepted them, and if they did, were they able to successfully serve patients at those amounts.

The reader wrote:

“I'm beside myself with the belief that other providers have bid even lower than the first time in Round 2. I cannot imagine that someone who is responsible for not just their own family, but those families of employees that work for them, saying that the ROI on these types of bid amounts they are placing is going to work. This is just about as simple as 2 + 2 math to see it is not. I just wanted to see if that was even a viable option to get information that is being withheld.”

Unfortunately, it is not. Mark Higley at VGM backed me up on this one, saying, “You cannot receive by FOIA (or by lawsuit for that matter!!!) the bid submission data.”

So much for transparency.

I thought it was interesting that this reader began the email with:

“Hope you are doing well, since the release of the Round 2 re-compete has come for payments. I'm sure you are hearing a lot, so here is mine.”

Actually, reader, you're the only provider who has reached out to me since the news came out.

Now, I don't take that to mean this reader was the only reader who has been throwing his or her hands up over the new payment amounts. Far from it. You're all just too busy hot-lining your representatives and senators to email me.

Right?