Discussion Forum

Those of you who are in a position to furnish information to assist CRE in its investigation of the CMS accreditation for DME suppliers should post relevant  information on this Forum.

The allegations we will be investigating are set forth in this thread http://www.thecre.com/Forum/?p=1420

CRE

I read in the CMS’s own documents that the site visits MUST BE UNANNOUNCED. I spoke with a few companies that accredit and they were not even aloud to give a hint when they were coming to visit.
So the two questions out there are how did the customers of ABCOPP get accredited without a site visit .
If ABCOPP had a special deal with CMS to avoid the site visits so they could take on many more customers and guarantee them they would not miss the deadline, how caould these be unannounced.
Did CMS post this unique special option for all and … Continue Reading

I am in a rural community and need another 30 days to complete accreditation. I am am strapped due to my small size and few employees, not to mention financial obligations. THe flu virus cut my staff in half this month which has put us off schedule. I will have to close if there is any cash flow decrease. I have a 13 year old buisness and over 2000 customers. They will have no local provider and will suffer the most!

We are in pre-survey status.Our service area is about 11,000 square miles with a considerable portion of it rural where no other providers operate. Beneficiaries in many areas will suffer loss of all service and will suffer irreparable harm. Suppier-beneficiary relationships will suffer as well as we will be “blamed” for this lack of service. Immediate reconsideration of deadline extension needs to take place with the immediate petition for reconsideration for dealers like us mandatory.
I ask “how could CMS make such a decisiion that will hurt so many beneficiaries, hurt so many providers and their employees”

I’m an industry consultant, and we have helped hundreds of DMEs through the accreditation process. We know what we are doing and all of our clients pass, and we also don’t gouge people. We didn’t raise our prices when accreditation became mandatory. We have worked with every accredting body on CMS approved list.

I’m not going to use my name here, because I don’t want anyone mad at me. But here is the real deal as I see it, from both sides — the DME provider side, and the CMS side.

1. The industry as a whole has known this requirement was … Continue Reading

CRE has had extensive discussions with CMS regarding accreditation. CMS has decided not to grant an extension to DME providers. In arriving at this decision, CMS has given serious consideration to several Congressional mandates, including patient access and Congressionally mandated deadlines.

CRE is not in a position to provide its readers with business advice; however we are in a position to inform you of your options regarding accreditation.

If you are likely not to be accredited you should give consideration to voluntarily terminating your enrollment in the Medicare program–please see page 4 of the CMS 855S. If you fail to voluntarily terminate … Continue Reading

I own a small retail medical supply store in Seminole, FL. Medicare/CMS has mandated that we as providers have to become accredited by September 30, 2009. This is an incredibly expensive process for a small business like mine. With policy and procedure manuals, consulting, and the fee for accreditation this will cost us about $10,000, not including all the time I have involved. That is about 20% of what we will bill Medicare for this year. We are currently being told by our accreditation company that it may be 6 months before they can inspect us, … Continue Reading

CRE met with CMS officials regarding the DMPOS accreditation deadline. Agency staff and leadership have a highly detailed, in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of all pertinent information. Officials are keenly aware of the twin goals of ensuring regulatory compliance and maintaining beneficiary access.

: Medicare has set a deadline of all medical equipment providers to be accredited by Oct 1st. Almost 30,000 providers and pharmacies are still in the process. Inspectors are overloaded and unable to inspect everyone. Medicare is droping provider numbers of everyone who does not make it by Oct 1st. Thousands of jobs and small businesses are at stake. Not to mention the Medicare patients being cared for. Please help us if you can. A 3 month deadline extension could save thousands of jobs.

I know I am in the same situation as many Durable Medical Equipment Suppliers. I have acquired the Bond for our company and I have completed all of the work room information for accreditation. The only thing we are waiting on is the survey. Due to the back log I do not know if will have our accreditation complete by the October 1st deadline. We have worked very hard to complete everything we have been required to do. We really need CMS to give an extension for the accreditation deadline. Due the oxyen cap … Continue Reading

We as a business have done everything in our power to stay in guidlines and to also help our customers at the same time. We have contacted the source that is suppose to come and inspect our facility but we have yet to hear from them since the end of July. We are now just in the waiting game to see if they show up before Oct. 1. We were told to contact them by the end of July to make sure we would be done in time but now are told that it could be up … Continue Reading

All providers have been aware of this requirement for some time. Now here we are once again at the deadline and some in our industry are crying foul. When we start behaving proavtively this industy will be better off. If you are on the cry foul side are you politically involved, are you a member of a trade association etc. We must be proactive or we will all be watching a slow and painful death to an incredibly important industry. WAKE UP!

should have started proecss at least two years ago as we did. Everyone knew that there was going to be a mad rush at the end to get accrediation. don’t forget surety bonds

I’m a Medicare beneficiary. I get exceptional care from my small service provider. I hope for my sake and other’s that someone is listening to small busineses.They need consensus on this. Has anyone considerd a huge LAWSUIT!!!?

Hello,

I have been an active participator in your discussion boards and I just read the letter to Ms. Frizzera.

I see you mention the rural areas in the letter, this extension if granted….will it be only applicable to rural areas?!

Also in your letter I read that you mentioned only 200 providershaving to close their doors? What about the 81,000 providers still not accredited I have read about? Is there any way to put more emphasis on the accrediting organizations responsibilities to survey in time?

It is truly disheartening, so we (a 6 employee working … Continue Reading

WHAT NOW? WE ARE IN THE SURVEY “QUE” WHICH MEANS ACTUALLY NOTHING TO ME, EXCEPT THAT THERE IS NO WAY WE WILL BE SURVEYED IN TIME. PURE SADNESS. NOTHING TO DO WITH CMS OR CONGRESSIONAL MANDATES…BUT ACCREDITING AGENCY INTERNAL DEADLINES…..EVERYONE DEADLOCKED, SHUT OUT AND POTENTIALLY DEVASTATING MY SMALL COMPANY NOT TO MENTION OUR INDUSTRY! WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO CARE FOR THESE PEOPLE IN NEED?!

MY QUESTION….WHAT NOW?

I AM INCREDIBLY TORN BY WHAT TO DO NEXT….HANGING BY A THREAD ISN’T THE MOST SOUND BUSINESS DECISION BUT THE ALTERNATIVES AREN’T PARTICULARLY SOUND EITHER.

SURRENDER MY NUMBER = LOSS OF REVENUE, DOWN … Continue Reading

We too are just finishing up our paper work. We will not be accredited on time. We have always gone above and beyond for our customers . I know from personal experience many companies refuse to. Our company has relationships with a large base of medicare recipients. Our specialties do not exsist in our area. Our business exsist with very limited resources and man power. The big companies with thier selfish intercept have no concern about the well being of medicare recipients like our beloved customers.Money is their bottom line.Their motto should be, “WE WILL TAKE ALL … Continue Reading

Perhaps if Medicare set a date that companies had to have applied for Accreditation by and used that. There has to be some way to not punish the ones that are prepared and ready for Accreditation and at the mercy of the Accrediting bodies. If you applied for survey this month then you should not be so naive to believe that it would be done that quickly. The ones I’m concerned about at the ones that have applied for survey and have done little or nothing to be prepared for adhering to the standards. They should … Continue Reading

My name is rita jeane I am the owner of home care medical supplies. My address is 8030 hwy 6 hitchcock tx 77563. I have applied for accreditation in January and havn’t had my final decision yet. We will not have it in time to bill medicare this next month. We have lots of capped oxygen customers who no one will take because they will not get paid. What are these people to do without their oxygen? We desperately need and extension so we can continue serve our patients. Please take this in consideration we need to do … Continue Reading

As an employee of a small family owned HME company ( they have had this family business for 73 years in their family) I find it quite appalling that a Medicare patient will be forced to only use a HME/DME company that has been deemed by Medicare as a Medicare provider. Our company offers our customers so much more than just equipment. They are part of our family and are treated as such. With competitive bidding everything will be based solely on low pricing and low ball bidding. Bigger companies will be okay, but a smaller company such as ours … Continue Reading

HME Sales & Service, Inc. dba HME Medical has been tied up in the accreditation process for 7 months. We have been ready for inspection, and were just informed by the accreditation company (ACHC) that there may not be enough time for them to inspect, review, and process our accreditation in time for the deadline.

HME medical feels that it would be very unfair for us to loose our Medicare billing privileges through no fault of ours. Business is bad enough and for us to lose Medicare billing privileges would put us totally “out of business”.

realy admire your action into requesting an extension for the accrediattion process, hundreds of DME providers are in the middle of the process, most of them would not be accredited ready by the end of the month, jeopardizing their medicare billing priviledges, but the most affected part is for those who may have to reduce/downsize operations, which equals to more unemployement, increasing the nation’s unemployemnt records, putting a financial load in the system. Such extension would help providers to stay in bussines, we hope that MEDICARE oficials would help with this issue.

Thanks for your action on this looming deadline. It makes no sense that CMS did not stagger the deadline in the first place.

Why on earth would you make every single HME/DME in the country have the same deadline date? There were suggestions made to CMS by several credible groups and individuals that having a single deadline would result in huge congestion and disruption that was totally unnecessary. States do not have all Drivers Licenses expire on the same date do they? Only CMS would wonder why….or maybe they hoped that the crush would eliminate lots of pesky … Continue Reading

Delayed Implementation of Change Request 6528 Affecting Suppliers of Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics and Supplies (“DMEPOS”)

As described in our August 2009 Client Alert, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued Change Request (“CR”) 6528 revising the Medicare Program Integrity Manual in a way that will severely limit physician and non-physician practitioner DMEPOS consignment closet and stock and bill arrangements. These changes will impact a vast number of arrangements between DMEPOS suppliers and physicians and non-physician practitioners and was to become effective September 8, 2009. However, on September 1, 2009, CMS delayed the implementation of CR 6528 until … Continue Reading

August 31, 2009 at 10:48 am

Michael Reinemer, American Association for Homecare
With respect to oxygen and durable medical equipment, it’s worth noting that Congress has already cut Medicare reimbursement rates for home oxygen therapy numerous times over the past 10 years — in 1997 (BBA), 2003 (MMA), 2005 (DRA), and 2008 (MIPPA). Reimbursement rates have been cut by nearly 50 percent over the past decade, so those savings from the bid program have been realized already through congressional action. Today, Medicare pays about $6 per day to provide a senior with home oxygen therapy, which about one million Medicare beneficiaries depend … Continue Reading

Medicare Reimbursement Information I
August 31, 2009 in Medicaid/Medicare

This week, I will be discussing Medicare Reimbursement in detail. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has a high-quality series of reports analyzing Medicare’s reimbursement system. Findings from these reports includes:

Physician Services

In 2006, about 569,000 physicians billed Medicare.
In 2007, Medicare paid $60 billion for physician services.
All physician services are reported to CMS according to the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS), which contains codes for about 6,700 distinct services. Payment rates are based on RVUs.
Under the Medicare incentive payment program, physicians receive bonus payments when they provide services in … Continue Reading