About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

HEHS-95-238R 1 (1995-08-11)

handle is hein.gao/gaobackza0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 

GAO          United States
             General Accounting Office
             Washington, D.C. 20548

             Health, Education and Human Services Division

             B-265657


             August 11, 1995

             The Honorable Joe Barton
             Chairman, Subcommittee on
               Oversight and Investigations
             Committee on Commerce
             House of Representatives

             Dear Mr. Chairman:

             Medicare costs are expected to continue to climb by about
             10 percent annually over the next several years. To begin
             to address this issue, the Congress is discussing the
             potential for competitive bidding--as a means of setting
             prices of medical services and supplies--to achieve
             substantial Medicare savings. This correspondence responds
             to your request that we provide you with information on
             instances in which competitive bidding has achieved savings
             in various programs, the factors that would determine the
             magnitude of savings, and the amount that Medicare spends
             on the types of services that are likely candidates for
             competitive bidding.

             COMPETITIVE BIDDING HAS BEE
             SUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING COSTS

             While competitive bidding may not be feasible in all cases
             and the savings it generates may vary, it can sometimes be
             an effective tool in controlling costs. The following
             three examples illustrate this point.

             -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) establishes its
                price for oxygen supplies through competitive bidding.
                Recently, the Inspector General of the Department of
                Health and Human Services (HHS) reported that if
                Medicare were to adopt competitive bidding for oxygen
                (similar to the process used by VA), it could save $4.2
                billion over 5 years.'




             'Letter to Congressman Joe Barton from June Gibbs Brown,
             Inspector General, HHS (July 25, 1995), p. 4.

                          GAO/HEHS-95-238R Medicare Competitive Bidding



                                IrL05)  /S

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most