Despite his longtime stance as a budget hawk, Price has sided with industry leaders who say the cuts harm rural medical suppliers who face higher costs delivering equipment. Price said in a press release that the cuts jeopardize seniors’ access to lifesaving medical equipment, including scooters and oxygen tanks. “Georgia’s seniors ought to have access to quality health care,” Price said in a statement in May.

Price introduced a bill that month to delay cuts in Medicare spending for durable medical equipment, like hospital beds and motorized wheelchairs. The bill passed the House in July but died in the Senate.


Medical equipment industry leaders credit Price with helping reverse or delay some cuts through the recently signed 21st Century Cures Act, according to the blog of the Iowa-based VGM Group, which describes itself as “the nation’s premier purchasing organization” and a “silent partner” to thousands of independent providers of home medical equipment. The company and its executives have contributed more than $17,000 to Price. One leader aired his gratitude to the congressman in another blog post calling the delay of the cuts a “red letter day” for durable medical equipment suppliers.

Price has also helped protect companies that provide home health aides and nursing care to homebound seniors — a lucrative industry that prosecutors have identified as prone to fraud. Alarmed by a Medicare plan to review such claims prior to payment, industry leaders turned to Price and another congressman for help, according to the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare, which lauded both men for listening to their concerns.

Home health companies also contributed more than $24,000 to Price from 2013 to earlier this year.

Criticizing the cost-saving plan as overly broad and impeding patients’ access to care, in September, Price introduced a bill that would delay the claim-review project a year. The bill, cosponsored by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), stalled in a subcommittee in October.

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