Home Health & Hospice Week

Accreditation, surety bonds also addressed in Open Door Forum.

Suppliers hoping for a change of heart from the feds over competitive bidding shouldn't hold their breath.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has instituted a 60-day delay to the competitive bidding interim final rule to "allow department officials additional time to review issues related to this rule before the rule becomes effective,"CMS's Joel Kaiser allowed in the Feb. 18 Open Door Forum for home care and durable medical equipment suppliers.

But after the rule's new effective date of April 18, suppliers can expect bidding to proceed without delay. CMS is going through a "transition process" while the new presidential administration comes in, Kaiser noted. But after that's done, CMS plans to issue the bidding timeline and other decisions expeditiously, Kaiser told an Ohio supplier who called into the forum.

Federal law requires CMS to have competitive acquisition in 2009, Kaiser pointed out. To accomplish that, the bidding process will have to move quickly to get the re-bid of round one done this year.

Erik Sokol from the Power Mobility Coalition urged CMS to reissue the bidding rule as a final rule with comment period so that suppliers would have a chance to provide meaningful feedback on the process, as learned from the last round of bidding.

But Kaiser claimed that the 2009 date required by law prevents such a move. "There's a timeliness issue," he said. The law's amendments are very specific, he added. "There's really no ifs, ands, or buts on how you implement those provisions."

Comments on the interim final rule are still due March 17, Kaiser pointed out. Bidding information, including a link to the interim final rule, is at www.cms.hhs.gov/DMEPOSCompetitiveBid.

Other issues CMS officials addressed in the forum include:

• Accreditation. The Obama administration's delay of unimplemented regulations doesn't apply to the accreditation requirement for DME suppliers that will take effect Sept. 30, CMS's Sandra Bastinelli told the forum.

"We encourage you to contact an accrediting organization right away if you haven't done so already and submit an application with them," Bastinelli said. "There is no CMS application."

Clarification: Physicians who bill for DME under their physician number are exempt from the accreditation requirements. But DME stores owned by licensed physicians are not exempt if they bill using a DME number, Bastinelli explained. "The supplier is considered by the enrollment number as a DMEPOS supplier, not as a physician," she clarified in the forum.

Suppliers will have to secure accreditation by Sept. 30 to retain their Part B fee for service supplier billing privileges, but the same rules don't apply for Medicare Advantage or commercial payors, Bastinelli noted. Suppliers should check with their payors to see whether they are also adopting any accreditation requirements.

• Surety bonds. The DME surety bond regulation seems to be in limbo due to the Obama ad-ministration regulatory hold.

Hospitals that are owned by local governments such as towns and counties and that have a DME unit are trying to figure out if they qualify for the bond exemption for government-owned organizations, reported Dave Macke with VonLehman & Co. in Ft. Mitchell, Ky.

There have been no new developments with the surety bond regulation, CMS noted.

The Jan. 2 Federal Register final rule about the bonds had set March 3 as the effective date.