Home Health & Hospice Week

Know your bidding basics.

Don't delay if you're a home medical equipment supplier in one of the areas slated for the launch of Medicare's competitive bidding program for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies.

Officials for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reiterated the caution at the May 23 Home Health, Hospice and DME Open Door Forum.

"If you're serious about participating in phase one, you should have already applied for accreditation" or be accredited, said CMS' Joel Kaiser at the forum.

Most likely not to succeed: Small suppliers who aren't members of trade groups or tapped into industry trade publications are likely to fall by the wayside, predicts Wayne Link of Link Consulting Group. "There are a fair share of suppliers out there who don't even know this is coming," he reports.

Under the recently issued bidding final rule, in 2008 Medicare will limit provision of 10 categories of DMEPOS in 10 cities only to those suppliers who win the bid for those items. (For a list of bidding items and other details, see Eli's HCW, Vol. XVI, No. 12). Bidding will spread to 70 cities the next year.

Kaiser also reiterated these cautions at the forum:

• Suppliers must provide every item in the competitive bidding category on which they bid.

• If you are a home health agency that bills for DMEPOS on your home health claims with an HHA provider number, you will need to bid and win a contract to continue serving your own patients in the same way.