Bona Fide Bid FAQs

No. The Request for Bids Instructions state on page 30 that once the bid window closes, all bid amounts are considered final and cannot be amended. Therefore, you will not be able to change the bid amount entered on Form B in DBidS for any reason. At this point, if you believe you would be able to furnish the lead and non-lead items in the product category for the bid amount, you must complete the instructions provided in your Notice to Substantiate Your Bid(s) in Connexion, the DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program’s secure portal, or your bids will be removed from further consideration for a contract award for the applicable competitions. 

Bids are screened to ensure they are bona fide. This means that your bid amount for the lead item – which also includes consideration for furnishing the non-lead items in the product category, historic and anticipated utilization of the non-lead items, and desired profit – must be rational and feasible for you to furnish the item at your bid amount.

No. The Request for Bids Instructions state that "your bid price must be rational, feasible, supportable, and reflect all costs associated with providing the lead item and services" and that you should "carefully review your bid amounts for keying errors and to ensure you are correctly entering either a purchase or rental amount for a new item as instructed." Bidders were required to submit a bid amount for a new item, as opposed to refurbished, like new, or used, to help ensure the integrity of the bidding process. 

You should submit supporting documentation for the purchase of a new non-invasive ventilator (E0466). The documentation may include, but is not limited to, manufacturer invoices, receipts (including retail sales receipts), manufacturer price lists, signed written quotes, and/or other financial information. This documentation can be obtained from manufacturers, distributors, retail sales facilities, Internet sales facilities, or any other sources that can legally sell suppliers the item. It is also important that you include a narrative rationale that describes your ability to furnish the non-invasive ventilator.

You should submit supporting documentation for the purchase of a new oxygen concentrator (E1390). The documentation may include, but is not limited to, manufacturer invoices, receipts (including retail sales receipts), manufacturer price lists, signed written quotes, and/or other financial information. This documentation can be obtained from manufacturers, distributors, retail sales facilities, Internet sales facilities, or any other sources that can legally sell suppliers the item.  It is also important that you include a narrative rationale that describes your ability to furnish the oxygen concentrator, which is the lead item, as well as the non-lead items in the product category. Your narrative rationale should explain how you considered the impact your bid amount for the lead item would have on the potential single payment amounts for the non-lead items.  

Not all bidders are sent a Notice to Substantiate Your Bid(s) in Connexion. These notices were only sent when additional information was needed to support bidders' lead item bid amounts. 

No, there are no extensions. All required documentation must be uploaded by the deadline indicated in your Notice to Substantiate Your Bid(s). Failure to respond by the deadline will result in the bid for the lead item in the competitive bidding area and product category combination being disqualified from further consideration for a contract.

If you are unable to provide the required documentation substantiating your bid amount for the lead item in a competitive bidding area and product category combination (competition), your bid will be disqualified for that competition. However, if you bid in other competitions and you provide supporting documentation to substantiate those bid amounts, or if you were not asked to provide documentation, your bids for those competitions would still be eligible for further consideration.

As specified in regulation at 42 CFR §414.412(g)(3)(i), a bid surety bond is subject to forfeiture when a bidding entity is offered a contract for a competitive bidding area and product category combination (competition) and its composite bid for the competition is at or below the median composite bid rate for all bidding entities included in the calculation of the single payment amounts within the competition and the bidding entity does not accept the contract offer. As a result, a bid surety bond is not subject to forfeiture if the bidder’s bid(s) for the applicable competitive bidding area was disqualified and subsequently no contract offer was made. 

A bona fide bid is an offer to furnish an item or items for a particular price and time period that includes, where appropriate, any services that are directly related to the furnishing of the item or items. For Round 2021, bidders only submitted a bid amount for the lead item in each product category but that bid amount should have included all anticipated costs, including overhead, and desired profit associated with furnishing both the lead item and non-lead items in the product category throughout the competitive bidding area.

This information is used to verify that your bid amount is rational and feasible, and you are able to provide the item to Medicare beneficiaries for the amount you provided on your bid. This is one of the requirements described in the Request for Bids Instructions. If you do not respond with (1) a narrative rationale that describes your ability to furnish the lead and non-lead items in the product category and (2) supporting documentation that substantiates your ability to obtain the lead item for less than your bid amount by the deadline in the Notice to Substantiate Your Bid(s), we will not be able to evaluate your bid further and it will be disqualified.