What Is Medicare Competitive Bidding? 
Medicare is looking at installing a new program in some parts of the country called the competitive bidding program -LRB- CBP -RRB- . The idea is to lower costs and create more accurate prices for certain durable medical equipment -LRB- DMEs -RRB- from suppliers . In short , suppliers `` bid '' to provide certain medical equipment and supplies at a lower price than what Medicare currently pays . Medicare then uses the bid numbers to set the amount it pays for supplies - winning bids are chosen as the contract suppliers for Medicare . 