Home Health & Hospice Week

Bid contract suppliers are anxiously awaiting bidding Form C, but it still isn't out at press time.

Background: Under bidding, suppliers have to submit Form C quarterly, 10 days after the quarter ends. The first Form C submission is scheduled for April 10. The form will be out "soon," CMS pledges in a message to providers.

Form C is used to submit a report "on the products and brands furnished to Medicare beneficiaries during the previous quarter," CMS says on its bidding website. "The report must also include the approximate number of each item furnished during the quarter to beneficiaries enrolled in Original Medicare in a competitive bidding area for which you were awarded a contract."

Why? "The information is used to evaluate beneficiary access to competitively bid items, as well as the quality of items and services," CMS says on its bidding website.

Suppliers sorely need the form and instructions on filling it out asap, Kimberly Rogers-Bowers with Apria Healthcare urged in the March 2 Open Door Forum for home care providers. That's because suppliers will have to complete programming to fill out the form.

CMS believes filling out the form should be an "easy process," a CMS rep said in the call.

Also: The next DME bidding meeting for the Program Advisory and Oversight Committee (PAOC) will take place April 5. The meeting will focus on "the status of the Round 1 Rebid and upcoming Rounds of the Medicare DMEPOS competitive bidding program," CMS says on its website.