Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry wants major changes to the proposed bonding requirement.

A rule that would require home medical equipment suppliers to ante up for surety bonds should be significantly revised, say the American Association for Homecare and other stakeholders.

The proposed rule, published in the Federal Register Aug. 1 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, calls for all suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS) to furnish Medicare with a surety bond (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVI, No. 27).

The proposed rule calls for suppliers to furnish a $65,000 surety bond for each of its National Provider Identification numbers as a condition of enrollment in Medicare.

Suppliers whose owners, authorized officials or delegated officials had their billing privileges revoked within the last 10 years would be subject to double or triple the $65,000 amount.

Groups representing DMEPOS suppliers are asking CMS to make the following changes:

• Exempt providers with a good track record with the Medicare program.

• Step back from a recommended adjustment upward for inflation for the bond amount. Medicare reimbursement for DMEPOS items have either been cut or frozen, commenters note.

• Exempt rural providers and large national chain providers.

The deadline for submitting comments was Oct. 1.

Resource: To read the proposed rule, go to www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/browse.html; select "Back Issues" and "Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007."