II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 148 

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require State licensure 

and bid surety bonds for entities submitting bids under the Medicare 

durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies 

(DMEPOS) competitive acquisition program, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 12, 2015 

Mr. PORTMAN (for himself, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. HOEVEN, Mr. CASEY, and Mr. 

BENNET) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require 

State licensure and bid surety bonds for entities submitting bids under the Medicare durable medical equipment, 

prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) competitive acquisition program, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Medicare DMEPOS 

5 Competitive Bidding Improvement Act of 2015’’. 


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•S 148 IS

1 SEC. 2. REQUIRING STATE LICENSURE AND BID SURETY 

2 BONDS FOR ENTITIES SUBMITTING BIDS 

3 UNDER THE MEDICARE DMEPOS COMPETI4 TIVE ACQUISITION PROGRAM. 

5 Section 1847(a)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 

6 U.S.C. 1395w–3(a)(1)) is amended by adding at the end 

7 the following new subparagraphs: 

8 ‘‘(G) REQUIRING STATE LICENSURE AND

9 BID BONDS FOR BIDDING ENTITIES.—With re10 spect to rounds of competitions beginning under 

11 this subsection on or after the date of enact12 ment of this subparagraph, the Secretary may 

13 not accept a bid from an entity for an area un14 less, as of the deadline for bid submission— 

15 ‘‘(i) the entity meets applicable State 

16 licensure requirements for such area for all 

17 items in such bid for a product category; 

18 and 

19 ‘‘(ii) the entity has obtained (and pro20 vided the Secretary with proof of having 

21 obtained) a bid surety bond (in this para22 graph referred to as a ‘bid bond’) in a 

23 form specified by the Secretary consistent 

24 with subparagraph (H) and in an amount 

25 that is not less than $50,000 and not more 

26 than $100,000 for each such area. 


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•S 148 IS

1 ‘‘(H) TREATMENT OF BID BONDS SUB2 MITTED.— 

3 ‘‘(i) FOR SUCCESSFUL BIDDERS THAT

4 DO NOT ACCEPT THE CONTRACT.—In the 

5 case of a bidding entity that is offered a 

6 contract for an area for a product cat7 egory, if the entity’s composite bid— 

8 ‘‘(I) is at or below the product 

9 category’s median composite bid rate 

10 for the area and the entity does not 

11 accept the contract offered for the 

12 product and area, the bid bond sub13 mitted shall be forfeited by the bid14 ding entity and the Secretary shall 

15 collect on it; or 

16 ‘‘(II) is above such median com17 posite bid rate and the entity chooses 

18 not to accept a contract for the prod19 uct category, the bid bond submitted 

20 shall be returned within 90 days of 

21 the date of notice of nonacceptance. 

22 ‘‘(ii) FOR LOSING BIDDERS.—If a bid23 ding entity submits a bid that is not ac24 cepted for an area, the bid bond submitted 

25 for the entity for such area shall be reVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:44 Jan 17, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S148.IS S148

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•S 148 IS

1 turned within 90 days of the date of notice 

2 of nonacceptance.’’. 

Æ 


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