Home Health & Hospice Week

Deadline draws near.

All of your hard work could be for naught without careful attention to details as the feds' first round of bidding comes to an end this month. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently reminded bidders not to overlook necessary hard copy documentation requirements. Suppliers can now check their home page on CMS' competitive bidding submission system to see if CMS has received their hard document package. But the agency warns that a green light on receipt of the package doesn't offer proof that the hard copy package "is necessarily accurate, complete or meets CMS criteria." "It is each bidder's responsibility to ensure that a complete package of all required documentation has been correctly submitted," CMS says in a statement. All bidders, regardless of the type of business structure, must submit the certifying statements as well as the following financial documents for the past three years: income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and credit report and score (completed within 90 days prior to date on which the supplier submits its bid). Essential: Other documents are required depending upon the bidding entity, cautions CMS. Key meeting: CMS announced recently that the next meeting of the Medicare Program Advisory and Oversight Committee (PAOC) for competitive bidding will be Oct. 11 in Baltimore. Discussions are likely to focus on fallout from the first round of bidding. The American Association of Homecare plans to participate in the PAOC session and will develop a list of issues and questions that should be addressed at the meeting, it says. Look for: Watch Eli's Home Care Week for details on how to participate in the meeting.