Home Health & Hospice Week

Say goodbye to current CMNs for infusion pumps, PEN.

Durable medical equipment suppliers should prepare to ring in 2007 with brand new types of forms.

Effective Jan. 1, 2007, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will eliminate several old forms required for claims processing, CMS says in a Feb. 10 Transmittal No. 138. Starting next year, Medicare contractors will no longer accept these forms and will require new DMEPOS certificates of medical necessity and DME Medicare Administrative Contractor information forms (DIFs) for claims processing.

After the first of the year, Medicare contractors won't accept existing CMNs currently used for home oxygen therapy, hospital beds, support surfaces and external infusion pumps among other home medical equipment.

"We've combined related forms, eliminated some obsolete questions, and eliminated some forms that were no longer necessary," a CMS official tells Eli.

The lowdown: The CMN for infusion pumps (CMS-851) will be replaced with a DIF for external infusion pump (CMS-10125) and the CMNs for parenteral nutrition (CMS-852) and enteral nutrition (CMS-853) will be replaced with a DIF for enteral and parenteral nutrition (CMS-10126), according to the transmittal.

Suppliers benefit from this change because they will no longer need to involve a physician in completing these forms, points out the CMS official. "The supplier can fill out and submit the form on his own."

Suppliers should make sure they use the correct and most up-to-date forms when submitting claims, cautions the CMS source.

During the transition period from Oct. 2 to Dec. 31, suppliers may use either the old or new forms when submitting claims. DME regional carrier provider relations staff will advise suppliers about which forms to use during the transition period, says the CMS official.

Note: A list of the new and deleted forms is in Transmittal 138 at www.cms.hhs.gov/Transmittals/Downloads/R138PI.pdf.