DIRECTIONS CANADA

BLIND BIDDING IN CANADA

Written by: STEVE CRANNA

Within the Complex Rehab Technology (CRT) industry, a practice pervades in varying degrees across Canada that compromises the integrity of a supplier’s business practices, and one could argue, their integrity. The NRRTS Canadian Advisory Committee has been meeting with Canadian funders, clinicians and other stakeholders to raise awareness of the pitfalls of blind bidding, and this article is written to provide clarity and consistency based on our conversations.

The practice is Blind Bidding, or the provision of quotes for CRT equipment, without ever seeing the client, understanding their medical condition or having knowledge of the environment in which they will be using the equipment being prescribed.

There is a significant difference between CRT equipment and Durable Medical Equipment (DME). CRT products include medically necessary, individually configured devices that require evaluation, configuration, fitting, adjustment or programming. These products and services are designed to meet the specific medical, physical and functional needs of individuals with serious diagnoses either from a congenital disorder, progressive or degenerative neuromuscular disease, or from certain types of injury or trauma.

To provide the most appropriate and reasonably priced product, a uniquely qualified team meets, usually at the time of the assessment. The team is composed of a prescribing therapist, a knowledgeable supplier and the client or family member. Each team member has a role. The prescribing therapist considers a client's current medical condition, the long-term impact of their condition and then based on their knowledge and input from other team members prescribes the most appropriate devices. The knowledgeable suppler recommends a specific product best suited for the client based on their in-depth understanding of the available rehab equipment and their specifications. Finally, the client or the family member then represents their personal wishes.

DME (as defined by Health Quotes Canada) refers to devices that provide therapeutic benefit to people suffering with a medical condition or illness. Common types of DME are wheelchairs, medical beds, crutches, canes and walkers, just to name a few.

Blind Bidding is the practice of funding agencies or prescribers requesting blind quotes of CRT equipment and puts the supplier in a compromising position of having to cost out an item without understanding the exact setup required based on the client’s condition, environment, and therapeutic objectives. This is contrary to NRRTS requirements, which requires a supplier to assess a client’s needs, not just blindly issue a price quote.

A parallel practice is to have a qualified supplier at the assessment and have them provide a proprietary detailed quotation, which is then forwarded without permission to other suppliers for quotation. The majority of these second quotations are requested without providing any information related to the client’s condition or environment, so the quote is again blind.

NRRTS suggests suppliers provide clarity to their prescribers as to the principals under which they operate to protect end users and to limit fiscal and legal liabilities.

Suggested language from NRRTS is as follows:

“The information contained developed by XYZ Medical Inc. is confidential and proprietary to XYZ Medical and is provided to the recipient for the sole purpose of the recipient evaluation of XYZ medical’s proposal.”

The recipient agrees to keep the information confidential and to not disclose the information to others without the expressed written consent of XYZ Medical Inc. Any transmission or reproduction is prohibited.”

Should a quote be provided without seeing the client, it is imperative it is qualified as being provided without having assessed the client,and for CRT, it is the company’s policy to assess the client prior to the provision of equipment. This protects the client and maintains professional standards for our industry.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR Steve may be reached at STEVE.CRANNA@VGM.COM

Steve Cranna is the director of New Business Development and Government Relations at VGM Group Services. Cranna serves on the NRRTS Canadian Advisory Committee and is a Friend of NRRTS.