BALTIMORE--In a scheduled conference call Thursday with accrediting organizations, CMS officials confirmed that the agency's final rule on national competitive bidding is in the final clearance stage before publication.

The list of 10 MSAs where CMS plans to roll out the Medicare bidding program and the products to be included in the bid will be issued at the same time, the accreditors were told.

"My understanding is we should know all of those things" a soon as the rule comes out, said Sandra Canally, president of The Compliance Team, one of 10 organizations approved by CMS to accredit DMEPOS providers.

The agency also plans to notify the accrediting bodies when the rule is published so that they can begin in earnest to focus their operations in the bidding areas to move unaccredited Part B providers through the process. CMS has asked the accreditors to give preference to providers in the bidding locations it selects.

No specific deadlines have been set for accreditation, but in another twist, during last week's conference call "it was said several times that providers do need to be accredited in order to be able to bid," one accreditation representative said. At an Open Door Forum on Jan. 30, however, agency officials gave contradictory information, stating that providers must be accredited in order to win a bidding contract but that they did not need accreditation in order to enter a bid. (See HomeCare Monday, Feb. 5.)

One thing that hasn't changed, the accreditors said after the call, is CMS' message to providers: Get accredited now.

In December, CMS gave the accrediting organizations a list of 19 possible target areas, and in a notice shortly thereafter, added a 20th city--Orlando--to the list. The agency said its goal is to have all providers in those 20 MSAs accredited before bidding begins. But the flood of companies expected to apply for accreditation in those cities hasn't happened.

"My view of this whole thing is [providers] are still waiting for that magical statement that says 'these are the 10 cities and these are the products,'" Canally said. "Do I need to spend the money or can I put it off six months?"

But if providers continue to delay accreditation, she warned, "thousands are going to be ahead of them.

"I know providers are confused," Canally, said, but she added that "CMS wants us to accredit the providers in those 20 MSAs as soon as possible. If providers are in those 20 areas and they don't come forward now, they are placing their business at risk," she warned. "That's the message, and that message has not changed."

From an accreditors' viewpoint, Canally said, "we just wish they would come forward and sign up. Nobody's getting out of it. Everybody's gotta do it."