CMS Releases More Details on Round 2021 Bids

Analysis from AAHomecare shows a large portion of the bids were for the 13 removed categories and came from first-time bidders.

• By David Kopf
• May 27, 2021

CMS has released more details on Round 2021 bid submissions, including data the American Association for Homecare requested in a November 2020 FOIA request.

Released under the Reports section of the CBIC website, the new data shows that DMEPOS suppliers submitted 45,815 bids and that 37,894 of the bids were for the 13 major product categories for which CMS decided in October not to award Round 2021 contracts, AAHomecare reports.

Additionally, 53 percent of the bids for the products CMS did not include in Round 2021 were submitted by first-time bidders (that’s 20,116 of the 37,894 bids based on CBIC’s information for First Time Bidders).

Other insights AAHomecare’s analysis on the 13 product categories that CMS removed from Round 2021:

• For approximately 12 percent of bids, CMS requested bidders share additional information to determine bona fide bid status. 
• Ninety-one bidders failed to submit bona fide bid documentation that supported their bid amount.
• Approximately 21 percent of bids (7,863) would have lost the bid due to price alone. 
• Approximately 11 percent of bids (3,990) would have lost based on financials.
• A total of 42 percent (15,695 bids) of the bids would have been disqualified overall. Besides losing on bid price and financial issues noted above, the next leading reasons for disqualification include: not licensed (2,109) and invalid bid bond (510).

“The data released by CMS closely match five of the six categories sought in AAHomecare’s FOIA request,” a statement from the association read. “The only area the new release did not address was details on how many bidders were denied on account of an inadequate or incomplete response to a CBIC preliminary bid evaluation inquiry.”

AAHomecare said its Regulatory Council would further evaluate the newly released information to help inform guidance for potential future bidding rounds.

The data can be downloaded an Excel spreadsheet from CBIC.