Home Health & Hospice Week

Could access problems loom for beneficiaries needing medical equipment?

The fact that few home medical equipment suppliers are rushing toward accreditation could be a sign of the industry's waning interest in Medicare business.

That's what some insiders are suggesting in the wake of the most recent home health Open Door Forum, at which federal officials reported--and lamented--the paucity of the numbers of applications for accreditation by home health providers. 

"Suppliers are now doing their due process in preparing for accreditation, deciding whether or not they want the Medicare business," says John Fell, director of Wausau, WI-based Aspirus Home Medical Equipment and president of the Wisconsin Association of Medical Equipment Services.

The other option: Some home medical equipment suppliers may be leaning toward making their business attractive for acquisition. Suppliers' reluctance to embrace competitive bidding could, in turn, fuel beneficiary advocates' calls for the government to abandon the shift in how Medicare plans to pay  for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS). Consider Your Options Suppliers should consider what's best for them, advised Miriam Lieber, president of Miriam L. Lieber Consulting in California, speaking Feb. 15 at an American Association of Homecare teleconference on the topic.

If you're a supplier and think that Medicare is in your future, don't delay if you haven't secured accreditation. "It's going to be a real problem for you," predicted Lieber. "I would suggest you get going, immediately if not sooner."

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has set no deadline by which all Medicare-certified suppliers must be accredited. They have, however, said that accreditation will be required before a supplier can proceed from winning bid to contract.

Beware this mistake: Some suppliers have asked accreditors if their "certificate" [accreditation] will be granted upon application. Be assured the accreditation process is just that--a process, cautions the Joint Commission's Maryanne Popovich.