What Is a Preliminary Bid Evaluation?
After the bidding period closes, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will conduct a preliminary bid evaluation (PBE) of all bids after the closing of the bid window. The PBE will check three things:
- Whether a bid was completed, certified, and approved in Connexion, the Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Competitive Bidding Program’s secure portal.
- Whether the required financial documentation and bid surety bond were uploaded in Connexion.
- Whether the bidder met the enrollment requirements outlined below.
CMS will also review whether the bidding entity was a contract supplier in a prior DMEPOS CBP round that CMS precluded from participating in the DMEPOS CBP, in accordance with 42 CFR § 414.422(g)(2)(iii).
Enrollment Requirements
CMS will verify the following information in the Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) for each location identified by the Provider Transaction Access Number (PTAN) listed on a bid:
- Active PTAN Status – The PTAN must be active and not inactive or revoked.
- Accreditation – The PTAN must be accredited by a CMS-approved accrediting organization to furnish all items in the competitive bidding area and product category combination (competition).
- Licensure – All PTANs included in a bid must together meet the applicable state and local licensing requirements. If a state requires a specific license, the bidder must ensure that at least one PTAN included on its bid meets the applicable requirement. See the Licensure for Bidders fact sheet for more information.
- Common Ownership or Control – The PTAN must not be commonly owned or controlled by another bidder in the same competition. See the Common Ownership and Common Control fact sheet for more information.
Please Note: The PBE only reviews what was submitted by the close of the bid window. It does not include a review of your financial documentation to check for missing items. That is a separate process called the "covered document review." See the Covered Document Review Process fact sheet for more information.
PBE Notice
Each bidder will receive an email when a secure notice has been posted in Connexion that requires immediate attention. The PBE notice will tell the bidder’s authorized official, backup authorized official(s), and end user(s) (as registered in the CMS Identity Management (IDM) System) whether its bid(s) is eligible for further evaluation and whether any enrollment requirements reviewed during the PBE could not be verified by the close of the bid window.
The notice will include instructions on how to verify that the enrollment requirements were met by the close of the bid window. Bidders will have the opportunity to work with the appropriate organization (i.e., the applicable National Provider Enrollment (NPE) contractor, their accrediting organization, or the Competitive Bidding Implementation Contractor (CBIC)) to prove that any enrollment requirement identified in the PBE notice was met by the close of the bid window.
Important: To remain eligible for a contract offer, bidders must contact the appropriate organization(s) and take the necessary corrective action(s) within 10 business days of receiving their PBE notice.
If your PBE notice says no further action is needed, please be aware that CMS does not guarantee you will receive a contract offer. Bids can still be disqualified later in the bid evaluation process if CMS finds that any requirements in the Request for Bids (RFB) Instructions are not met.