Home Health & Hospice Week

Supplier standards, surety bonds also addressed in Open Door Forum.

Durable medical equipment suppliers haven't been rushing to apply for accreditation after learning of the 70 new areas subject to Medicare's competitive bidding program.

"I understand from all of our 10 deemed accrediting organizations they are not busy with new applications," said Sandra Bastinelli with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the Feb. 20 Open Door Forum for home care providers including DME suppliers. That "is not a good sign because they should be busy now," Bastinelli told the forum's 377 participants.

The catch: CMS hasn't actually issued the zip codes for the 70 competitive bidding areas (CBAs) it released in January. (For a list of all 70 areas, see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVII, No. 2.) Until suppliers know for sure they serve a zip code that's included in the CBA, there's no reason to incur the expense of accreditation, they figure.

"Some time within the next couple months we'll be issuing those specific zip codes that are associated with the competitive bidding areas," CMS' Joel Kaiser told a Wisconsin caller. Watch for them to appear on the bidding Web site, Kaiser advised.

But CMS doesn't want you to wait on accreditation. "There will be accreditors that will not be able to take your application and will not be able to accredit you at the last minute," Bastinelli warned. "Just keep that in mind."

More DME issues raised in the forum include:

• Supplier enrollment standards. CMS is taking comments on its new and revised supplier standards until March 25. A CMS staffer ran through some of the supplier changes, including the requirement for suppliers to be open to the public at least 30 hours a week and notify the National Supplier Clearinghouse of certain changes within 30 days. (For more on the new and revised standards, see Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 5)

"Legitimate DMEPOS suppliers are already doing these things," the CMS rep said. "But it's a way to safeguard against those who are not."

• Surety bonds. Suppliers are still waiting on pins and needles for a surety bond deadline. Last August, CMS issued a proposed rule requiring suppliers to furnish Medicare with a $65,000 surety bond. The stakes could get even higher if a recent Senate bill calling for a $500,000 surety bond requirement picks up steam.

When Erik Sokol of the Power Mobility Coalition asked CMS about a bond deadline, a staffer said the agency was still looking at comments received on that rule and hadn't set a date for the next surety bond development.