CNN has finally noticed something I wrote about back in 2007. Medicare tends to pay WAY too much for health care items.
A standard power wheelchair costs the federal health insurance program for seniors an average of $4,018 to lease, compared with $1,048 for suppliers to buy, the Department of Health and Human Services’ internal watchdog reported.
"Medicare and its beneficiaries paid suppliers an average of $2,970 beyond the supplier’s acquisition cost to perform an average of five services and cover general business costs," the report found.
The difference was not as dramatic for more advanced wheelchairs used for physical rehabilitation patients, but at an average lease of $11,507, those chairs still cost Medicare about twice as much as the $5,880 paid by suppliers, the report found.
The obvious question is why. Why do these things cost so much more for the government to buy?
The cost could have been reduced considerably had Congress not delayed a planned system of competitive bidding for what Medicare classifies as "durable medical equipment," such as wheelchairs and oxygen tanks, the report said.
Competitive bidding would have cut Medicare’s average cost of a standard power wheelchair by nearly $1,000, the inspector general found.
"Medicare and beneficiary payments under the Competitive Bidding Acquisition Program would have decreased by an average of 26 percent across all included categories of [durable medical equipment], saving up to an estimated $1 billion annually," the report found. "However, Congress delayed the program and exempted complex rehabilitation power wheelchairs from future competitive bidding."
What motivated Congress to do such a thing?
It’s simple. When Congress talks about restructuring the way Medicare pays for things like powered wheelchairs, oxygen tanks or erection pumps for disabled men (no, really), the companies that sell those products call their customers. When they get these elderly folks on the phone, they explain that Congress is considering cutting the amount of money that goes to pay for things they sell them. They don’t explain how the reduction of funds is because the federal government is getting financially raped by the suppliers. They do, however, end the conversation by suggesting they call their Congressmen and Senators and telling them not to cut off their oxygen and boner pumps.
Congressmen then start feeling the heat from a misinformed voter base and cast their vote in favor of job security.
Thus, the medical suppliers are thriving, the old folks can have fun in the sack and then drink in some sweet, sweet, oxygen afterwards.
And you and I get to pay for it.
Think about next time Obama and his League of Leftist Misfits tell you their health care reform will cut costs.
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