HFMA.org – Jan 5, 2009.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced it is requiring certain durable medical equipment suppliers to post a surety bond. In addition, CMS has revoked the billing privileges of more than 1,100 medical equipment suppliers in south Florida and southern California and is suspending payments to home health agencies in the Miami-Dade, Fla. area. Click title to read more…
The final surety bond regulation requires that certain suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS) post a $50,000 surety bond. This requirement is in part a response to the large number of improper and potentially fraudulent payments to medical equipment suppliers for furnishing medical equipment and devices to people with Medicare. The 2007 Medicare error rate report found approximately $1 billion in improper payments for medical equipment and supplies.
To prevent fraud, CMS has revoked billing privileges of 1,139 DMEPOS suppliers as part of the DMEPOS High-Risk Suppliers Demonstration. This project began in October 2007 and focuses on DMEPOS suppliers in South Florida and the Los Angeles metropolitan area. These suppliers, who were paid a combined total of $265 million between calendar years 2005 and 2007, lost their billing privileges for not reenrolling in the Medicare program and not meeting Medicare?s supplier standards. CMS is also suspending payments and taking other payment and review actions for home health suppliers in the Dade County, Fla., area. On Oct. 6, 2008, CMS initiated efforts to address potential waste, fraud and abuse by suspending payments to 10 home health agencies and is continuing to review claims and payments to other agencies as resources allow.
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