Medicare DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Improvement Act of 2015
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Medicar e DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Improvement Act of 2015
Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act with respect to the Medicare durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) competitive acquisition program.
Prohibits an entity from submitting a bid for a competitive acquisition area, during calendar 2017-2019, unless it has obtained a bid surety bond of between $50,000 and $100,000 for each such area.
Requires the forfeit of any bid bond submitted for a competitive acquisition area if the bidding entity does not accept a contract offered for any product category when its composite bid was at or below the median composite bid rate for all bidding entities included in the calculation of the single payment amounts for the product category and the area. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to collect on the forfeited bond.
Requires return of a bid bond within a specified 90-day period to a bidding entity that does not meet such bid forfeiture conditions.
Prohibits the Secretary from awarding a contract to any entity that does not meet state licensure requirements.
Directs the Government Accountability Office to study the effect of this bid surety bond requirement on the participation of small suppliers in the Medicare DMEPOS competitive acquisition program.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House amended" stage on March 16, 2015. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on March 17, 2015: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 114th Congress (2015-16), 329 of the 10,233 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.2 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
PATRICK TIBERI (R-OH) introduced it on January 12, 2015, and 63 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 18 Democrats, 45 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on January 12, 2015, 4259 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4195 days ago, on March 17, 2015.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 114th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2017 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers