Home Health & Hospice Week

4 tips help you avoid common mistakes in applying online.

Home medical equipment suppliers who want Medicare competitive bidding contracts have about a month to complete the bidding process--leaving little room for trouble navigating the feds' online application process.

"The timeframe is extremely tight," notes Greg Taylor of Taylor HME Consulting in Duluth, GA.

Deadline: Suppliers must submit electronic bids no later than July 13.

To troubleshoot potential application snafus, representatives from Competitive Bidding Implemen-tation Contractor Palmetto GBA fielded callers' questions and offered advice in a June 4 audioconference. The audioconference was the first of three planned forums the first week of June designed to steer suppliers through the initial steps of durable medical equipment competitive bidding.

Follow These Directions

To stay focused on your bid and steer clear of time-robbing error messages online, consider these four tips from the CBIC:

1. Get your user name and password now. Once you register for a user name/password combination, you will have to wait about a week before proceeding to the electronic bid process. Why? CMS delivers suppliers' user names and passwords via snail mail.

Do look for an e-mail notification that you have successfully registered, advised a CBIC representative during the forum. If you don't get a confirming email, call the CBIC helpline for guidance.

Last chance: The last possible day to apply for a user ID is June 30.

• Make sure information matches. When applying for your user ID and password, make sure that the information you record matches the information on file with the National Supplier Clearinghouse. If you get an error message, call the NSC to check for possible discrepancies (1-866-238-9652).

2.  Register, and then register again. Once you have your user name and password in hand, you will have to enter your user name and password not once, but twice, on the CBIC's online submission system.

Here's how: The first time you access the system, you will be prompted to log in using your user name and password. You will then find yourself at a "security window" with a second "log in" prompt, explains a CBIC representative. To avoid an error message, click on the small word "register" under the "log in" box. This step is necessary only the first time through the sign on process.

3. Always save your data. Some suppliers completing the required forms in more than one online session have lost their data--and valuable time--by neglecting to press "submit" before logging off, warned CBIC officials.

4. Leave the required paper trail. In addition to submitting bids via the online system, suppliers are required to mail a signed copy of bidding forms--postmarked no later than July 13.

Note: If you have questions about the bidding process or competitive bidding in general, call the CBIC at 1-877-577-5331 or send an email to cbic.admin@ palmettogba.com. To access transcripts of the audioconferences, go to www.dmecompetitivebid.com.