Washington The days until the new millennium are dwindling, but when it comes to Y2K, it seems a lot of health care entities-including home medical equipment providers-still don't have their acts together. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services polled 5,000 HME providers, home health agencies, doctors, hospitals and nursing homes about their Y2K compliance. Of the 1,924 who responded, less than half said their biomedical equipment, such as X-ray machines and respirators, was ready. And one-third said they hadn't tested their billing and record-keeping systems with vendors or payers. That could result in an inability to submit electronic claim forms to Medicare-and that could mean a delay in paying claims, Medicare officials warned.