The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) is urging stakeholders to support a Congressional sign-on letter seeking to exclude ostomy, tracheostomy and urological supplies from Medicare’s competitive bidding program — or alternatively, to at least delay these products’ inclusion.
In a Feb. 9 email to industry members, AAHomecare said the campaign is being led by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who penned to letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz.
The letter expresses “concern” that ostomy, tracheostomy and urological supplies are currently part of competitive bidding’s next round: “We respectfully urge you to halt this implementation or, at a minimum, significantly delay the new proposed bidding protocols for these prosthetic products to allow for a thorough review of the serious concerns outlined below.”
Smith noted that ostomy, tracheostomy and urological supplies “are not interchangeable, off-the-shelf
commodity items easily sent by mail without the need for clinical fitting and support,” and instead described them as “highly individualized prosthetics used by hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries.”
The letter described the wide range of patients who use these supplies, including those with “spina bifida, paralysis, colorectal cancer, bladder cancer and other serious chronic conditions,” adding that the appropriate supplies can help to “avoid life-threatening infections and hospitalizations; participate in employment; maintain continence and dignity; and breathe safely and effectively.”
“Wound, ostomy and continence clinicians across the country emphasize that these products cannot be managed with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ assumption,” Smith said in the letter. “The precise fit and clinical appropriateness of these devices are matters of life and death.”
[[breakhead]] An ‘abbreviated timeline’ for competitive bidding implementationSmith also expressed concern that the home health final rule that announced the restart of competitive bidding when it was released last November “places the beginning of the bidding process in spring 2026. This abbreviated timeline is particularly alarming to clinicians and patient advocates given that these specific items have never been subject to national competitive bidding.”
Adding the supplies to the competitive bidding product categories “will not offer significant cost savings and will undermine President Trump’s commitment to lower health care costs,” Smith added. “Ostomy, tracheostomy and urological supplies represent a relatively small portion of overall Medicare spending. These products are both absolutely essential to patients and already considered low cost.”
The “preventable hospitalizations and complications” that will result from the use of suboptimal supplies, the letter predicted, “will generate enormous costs in Medicare Part A — far exceeding any savings through proposed, uncertain part B reductions.”
Smith said American facilities manufacturing ostomy and urological supplies “employ thousands of American workers in skilled manufacturing, clinical support, distribution and logistics roles,” and contends that substituting products made outside the country “undermines President Trump’s America First agenda and creates the exact supply chain vulnerability that the administration has rightfully strived to avoid.”
Therefore, Smith said, out of concern for patient health “and our commitment to protect the best medical options for securing properly fitting ostomy, tracheostomy and urological supplies, we respectfully request that CMS withdraw the November 28 final rule — or significantly modify the policy to fully and compassionately accommodate the needs of those who rely on these uniquely situated products.”
“DME [durable medical equipment] companies who furnish these supplies are encouraged to ask their representative to join the sign-on letter to delay implementation of competitive bidding for ostomy and urological products,” AAHomecare said. “Please share the letter with the Congressional staffer who handles health care issues and ask the representative to join the letter.” The link will be visible and accessible to Senate staff.
The letter is accepting signatures from additional members of the House of Representatives through Feb. 20.
