It's all coming together...

I listened in to a webinar on advocating through the Christopher and Dana Reeves Foundation today, and surprisingly enough, they are most concerned about how funding is getting cut AND COMPETITIVE BIDDING....which of course the "normal" person would have no reason to know about this but even scarier, the people that SHOULD know about it, the end users of durable medical equipment don't. Competitive bidding began this year in 9 cities/areas and what happened is that Medicare comes in and gives a few of the many vendors a contract to provide services to person's on Medicare. Many of the larger nationwide companies are able to underbid the local vendors - this affects quality of care - the smaller local vendors KNOW there consumers, stories and struggles. Taking business away from the smaller vendors puts them out of business (sometimes losing 50% of vendors in an area) who will never bounce back. This makes it harder for the consumer to get the right equipment. AND when the consumer does not know about this, it is very difficult to find out who has the contract and many times the suppliers/vendors are not even sure....It's kind of a mess, which is the nicest way to put it! I'm hoping to work with People for Quality Care who is an advocacy group through VGM to spread the word! Please check them out and support them - www.peopleforqualitycare.org