Home Health & Hospice Week

Interested suppliers don't have much time.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wants you to get accredited for competitive bidding by May, even if you're not sure bidding is affecting your area.

CMS has yet to release the ZIP codes in-cluded in the 70 competitive bidding areas (CBAs) where bidding's second round will take effect. But the agency has set a May 14 deadline for accreditation for round-two participants.

"Suppliers must be accredited or have applied for accreditation by May 14, 2008 to submit a bid for the second round of competitive bidding," CMS says in an email to providers. "CMS cannot accept a bid from any supplier that is not accredited or that has not applied for accreditation by May 14."

CMS will bestow contracts only to suppliers who are already accredited. "The accreditation deadline for the second round of competitive bidding is October 31, 2008," CMS says. "Suppliers must be accredited before this date to be awarded a contract."

The agency once again urges suppliers to get accredited right away. "Suppliers should apply for accreditation immediately to allow adequate time to process their applications," the email instructs.

CMS expects round two bidding prices to take effect in summer 2009.

More bidding information is at www.cms.hhs.gov/CompetitiveAcqforDMEPOS. A list of the 70 bidding areas is in Eli's HCW, Vol. XVII, No. 2.

HHAs must care too: Even if you're not a DME supplier, bidding still affects you. Home health agencies and hospices that contract with suppliers for bid items for their patients may have to switch suppliers once bidding takes effect. • MedPAC's March report to Congress wasn't all bad news for home care. The influential advisory body also pointed out that Medicare Advantage payment rates are on average 13 percent higher than traditional fee-for-service Medicare, MedPAC Chair Glenn Hackbarth pointed out in March 11 testimony before the House Ways & Means Health Subcommittee.

MedPAC recommends paying MA plans the same rate Medicare spends on FFS patients. MedPAC's MA criticism could fuel legislators' efforts to raise funds from MA plan rates, rather than home care rates, to pay for the physician payment fix, observers hope. • CMS has revamped the home health prospective payment system pricer and posted the updated version at www.cms.hhs.gov/PCPricer/05_HH.asp. The revision takes into account changes to the low utilization payment adjustment (LUPA) logic, CMS says in a message to providers.

Meanwhile, M0110 problems are still shortchanging HHAs, the Connecticut Association for Home Care & Hospice notes in its member news-letter. The Common Working File continues to not count 2007 episodes when figuring "early" or "later" episodes in sequencing (for more details, see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVII, No. 10).

"CMS is working on the problem," CAHC says. "It is not yet clear how [...]