Accreditation Powwow Set for Today

BALTIMORE--CMS will meet today with its newly approved DMEPOS accreditors to relay additional information about what the agency expects from those organizations--and Medicare Part B suppliers.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, CMS announced that 11 accrediting bodies had been granted "deeming authority" to apply its new quality standards, mandated by the Medicare Modernization Act for providers who will participate in competitive bidding next year. (See HomeCare Monday, Dec. 4.) However, no further information about what the agency expects as far as deadlines for accreditation, or about what the new standards mean for providers that are already accredited, has been released.

The "biggest" questions he would like answers to, according to Tom Cesar, president of the Accreditation Commission for Health Care, are:

--When are the metropolitan statistical areas where bidding will begin going to be announced?
--What about grandfathering? What are the rules for DME companies that are already accredited?
--When will the new standards actually be applicable to providers? What date?
--Is there a particular structure for provider networks with guidelines or rules for accreditation and competitive bidding?

About these questions and others, said Cesar, "We have concerned customers."

Added Sandra Canally, president of The Compliance Team, "CMS needs to communicate the identity of the first 10 MSAs to both the accrediting bodies as well as the rest of the industry ASAP so that we can all move forward with our individual contingency plans. Without that information," she continued, "it makes no sense for us to ramp up our operations in areas that will not be affected by the initial roll-out of the MMA competitive bidding process."

In a CMS Open Door Forum last month, a CMS official said the names of the 10 cities where bidding will begin won't be released until the final rule on competitive bidding is issued. While insiders believe the rule could come down before Christmas, the bidding locations are expected to follow at a later date.

But also at the Open Door session, the agency official noted that providers who want to participate in the 2007 bid should be accredited by early in the year. That's troubling to accreditors, who said they are hoping to get clarification today on when the actual accreditation deadlines will be.