Preliminary Bid Evaluation Fact Sheet

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will conduct a preliminary bid evaluation (PBE) of all bids after the close of the bid window. The PBE will determine if:

• A bid(s) was completed, certified, and approved in the Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Bidding System, DBidS.
• A required financial document and bid surety bond(s)¹  were uploaded in Connexion, the DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program’s secure portal, by the close of the bid window.
• The bidder met the enrollment requirements outlined below (see Evaluation of Enrollment Requirements section). 

Additionally, CMS will determine if a bidder has a location(s) (identified by a Provider Transaction Access Number (PTAN)) on the bid(s) that is associated with a supplier that has been precluded from Round 2021 of the DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program.

Evaluation of Enrollment Requirements

The following enrollment data in the Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) will be verified for each location on the bid(s):

• Active PTAN – PTAN has an active status (i.e., not inactive or revoked)
• Accreditation – PTAN is accredited by a CMS approved accrediting organization to furnish all items in the competitive bidding area and product category combination (competition).
• Licensure – PTAN has all applicable state licenses required to furnish all items in the competition. Please see the Licensure for Bidders fact sheet for more information.
• Common Ownership/Control – PTAN is not commonly owned and/or commonly controlled by another bidder in the same competition. For more information, please see the Common Ownership and Common Control fact sheet.

Note: In the PBE, CMS will only review elements of the bid that were submitted by the close of the bid window. The PBE does not include the review of your financial documents to determine if any are missing, which is a separate review and notification process ("covered document review"). Please see the Process for Reviewing Covered Documents fact sheet for more information.

PBE Notice

All bidders will receive an email when a secure notice has been posted in Connexion that requires their immediate attention. The PBE notice will inform the bidder’s authorized official, backup authorized official(s), and end user(s) (as registered in the CMS Enterprise Portal) whether its bid(s) is eligible for further evaluation and if any enrollment requirements could not be verified by CMS as being met by the close of the bid window.

The PBE notice will include instructions describing how the bidder should verify that it met the enrollment requirements by the close of the bid window. Bidders will have the opportunity to address any unmet requirements with the appropriate organization (i.e., the National Supplier Clearinghouse (NSC), their accrediting organization, and/or the CBIC) and take any necessary actions to prove that the enrollment requirement(s) was met for the PTAN(s) in question by the close of the bid window. To be further evaluated for a contract offer, bidders must contact the appropriate organization(s) and take the appropriate corrective action(s) within 10 business days of receiving their PBE notice for the PTAN(s) in question.

Bidders who receive a PBE notice stating that they do not need to take further action are also informed that CMS does not guarantee that they will be eligible for a contract offer. Bids may still be disqualified if, during the bid evaluation process, CMS finds that any of the bidding requirements in the Request for Bids (RFB) Instructions were not met.

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¹Refer to the RFB Instructions for financial documents and bid surety bond requirements.