Accreditation
Adding New Services
I'm sure you get the same emails I do each week from vendors offering ways to increase your sales by adding new products and product lines. But the question you need to ask is, “Will these products fit into the categories that I am accredited to provide?”
When CMS started the mandatory accreditation process a few years ago, the agency took what had been the industry accreditation procedure and turned it around a bit. Prior to the 2006 CMS Final Quality Standards when accreditation was voluntary, a DMEPOS provider became accredited for services. Now CMS requires that the accreditor provide a list of every item a provider is accredited to provide.
Here's how the items are categorized:
- Mobility Assistive Equipment
- Respiratory Equipment
- Durable Medial Equipment
- Orthoses
- Prosthetic Devices
- Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition
- Home Dialysis Equipment and Supplies
- Supplies
The idea behind accreditation by category is that an HME company could not get accredited for only one category and then begin to provide items from another. This makes sense for the situation that might occur when a company becomes accredited to provide the items listed under “durable medical equipment” and then suddenly decides to provide items from the “respiratory equipment” category. These two services require different considerations, such as administrative processes, staff competency and levels of expertise and, in some cases, additional state licensure.
When that email comes into your inbox, or that cheerful salesperson comes into your office, you may be tempted to jump on the bandwagon and take on new products. But remember to ask yourself, “Am I already accredited to do this?” If you are accredited in the “durable medical equipment” category, then you most certainly could add any of the items listed within the category. But if the item you are considering falls under another category, it may not be a simple addition.
Let's take, for example, therapeutic shoes. There is a growing interest in the opportunities and reimbursement potential available for these items. But not so fast.
