Accreditation Helper Blog Archive
Making Accreditation Pay For You
Unlike competitive bidding, accreditation is not going away. Accreditation is synonomous with quality and everyone is in favor of quality. So you will have to get accredited but it does not have to be a burden. Done correctly accreditation can make your business operate more efficiently, increase staff morale, raise your image within your community, and make you more money.
Competitive Bidding Postponed?
The house today voted to override Bush’s veto of the Medicare bill which contained a postponement of national competitive bidding. If the Senate follows their previous vote DME providers will get an 18-24 month reprieve. I hasten to point out that accreditation is affected only for those in the 70 MSA who were required to apply by July 21st and get accredited by January of 2009. The final date of September 30, 2009 is still in place and any new providers will require accreditation before they can get a supplier number.
CMS Important Message
Well, a couple more shoes dropped last week. I talked to Bob Achermann at CAMPS about the rumor that CMS had announced dates and he said he had seen “a piece of paper” from one of the accreditation vendors. This led me back to the CMS website and lo and behold there it was. May 14 is deadline to apply for accreditation and October 31 is deadline to be accredited if you want to be a competitive bidder.
No CAMPing
I just got back from the CAMP meeting at the Morongo Casino outside of Palm Springs. The CAMP folks tried hard and the meeting was well organized, but very low attendance. The exhibitors were bummed at spending a fair amount of money with not much possibility of a return on that investment.
DME: Whither or wither?
I have entered a strange new world called DME or Durable Medical Equipment and I feel like Robert Heinleins book “Stranger in a Strange Land”. DME companies supply equipment and services to people in their homes. Medicare (CMS) believes that not only is there fraud and abuse but there are also a lot of haphazardly run companies in this field. We once did a telemarketing blitz in Southern California from Medicare’s list of providers and found that at least 25% of the phone numbers listed were disconnected so I think they are on to something.