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This scheme was brokered between the big guys and CMS to drive out competitors from the industry. To streamline it and ration NOS delivered via restricting supply, thus driving down costs. To hell with beneficiaries and their needs. Of course we know some bad apples helped spoil the industry, too.

After nearly 20 years I happily sold out a year and half ago and haven't looked back; your employer should too unless their name is Apria, Lincare, Rotech, AHP, National DME and a few others. They are almost certainly getting inquiries to either merge or a straight buyout. You can linger on but the workload/compliance costs/inherent risks/financial burdens vs net profitability no longer favors continued operations in most cases. Some niche companies are making it for now and some outfits attempting to compete in traditional retail with mixed results. Cash is in short supply for that demo right now. Anyway the old model is over and the fight to reclaim it is over and lost. The sooner you move on the better.

You're correct in your analysis of the whys, but I don't know that it's over yet. There are three bills already introduced into Congress with the intent of killing Comp.Bid., all of which have bipartisan support. Neither party wants to take responsibility for cutting off grandma from her oxygen.

For the record, the company I work for has already won the bid on O2--and not by lowballing our bid--and our numbers show we can hold out on the crust they're tossing us. We've lost the first round on some of the other equipment we sell (like PAPs), but I ran the numbers the other day; the loss to our bottom line on those won't kill us. We'll have to retool our model, but we'll make it.