The Health Law Center announced at Medtrade Spring in Las Vegas that it will form a task force to address the problems facing HME providers because of “expanded activity” by the National Supplier Clearinghouse in assigning and managing provider supplier numbers.
“The NSC has commenced an unprecedented level of provider scrutiny,” according to Neil B. Caesar, president of the Greenville, S.C., law practice. “Unfortunately, the NSC's internal operating systems do not appear ready to handle this volume of new activity. The NSC is ignoring its own regulations, denying suppliers their legal rights and holding suppliers accountable for a set of rules that are not well-communicated and are applied inconsistently among the NSC's own site inspectors.”
Caesar said task force members will review the NSC's failure to review documents on a timely basis, among other problems. “I appreciate that the NSC is struggling to handle its increased workload,” Caesar said. “However, the NSC really has not played fair with the industry. When the NSC repeatedly makes errors, fails to fix problems, is unwilling or unable to view exonerating material on a timely basis and in general suggests that it may not have thought about the unfair and harmful consequences of its actions, the medical equipment industry must do something about it.”
According to Sheree Brown, an NSC supplier relations specialist speaking at a Medtrade Spring session on March 18, the NSC continues to carry a backlog from last year's temporary moratorium on new supplier applications but “is working through them.” Brown indicated that new applications are taking about 90 days to process, but several providers at the session said their applications were taking longer.
“As long as you adhere to the 21 [Medicare] supplier standards,” she told attendees, “you shouldn't have a problem.”
