Home Health & Hospice Week

Bidding details out soon, CMS promised in Open Door Forum.

Durable medical equipment suppliers soon will find out who they can turn to for Medicare-approved accreditation.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is set to release the list of approved accrediting bodies any day, CMS' Sandra Bastinelli announced in the Nov. 8 Open Door Forum for home care.

Accreditation is part of the new quality standards CMS requires of all suppliers of DME, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XV, No. 30). In the future, suppliers must be accredited to obtain or retain their National Supplier Clearinghouse billing number, Bastinelli reminded listeners.

A loophole: Suppliers who participate in competitive bidding, which is slated to begin in 2007, must be accredited. But there is no accreditation deadline for suppliers not in competitive bidding areas, Bastinelli admitted in the forum.

CMS' priority is to roll out bidding first, then focus on accreditation for all suppliers, she said. Consequently, suppliers in bidding areas will go to the front of the line for accreditation.

The agency will post information on approved accreditors, including contact information, at www.cms.hhs.gov/competitiveacqfordmepos/. Suppliers should contact the accrediting bodies directly, not CMS, for information and applications, she stressed.

Suppliers Impatient For Bidding Info

Competitive bidding is slated to begin in a few short months, but CMS has yet to issue the final rule on the new system. "We have no idea when the final rule is going to be released, but it will be released soon," Bastinelli pledged.

One caller protested that suppliers need time to plan in response to the announcement of the 10 areas that will begin bidding first.

Other issues addressed in the forum include:

• NPIs. Suppliers with multiple locations should get a National Provider Identifier number for each location, CMS' Barry Bromberg said.

Tip: To figure out which parts of your organization need separate NPIs, consult the NPI Web site at www.cms.hhs.gov/nationalprovidentstand/, he recommended.

Suppliers so far have been slow to obtain their NPIs, Bromberg reported. The May 23, 2007 deadline for using NPIs on claims "is coming up, it's not that far away," he warned. And the numbers are required now if you apply to enroll in Medicare or make changes to your enrollment information.

• CMNs. DME suppliers must remember to use the new form for certificates of medical necessity, a CMS official reminded. The new CMN form is available at www.cms.hhs.gov/cmsforms/cmsform/list.asp.