Watch the Clock

The majority of HME companies that began the accreditation process started in 2008, and now those suppliers will be due for accreditation renewal in 2011 — which is just over one month away.

Here are the main questions you need to review prior to your renewal:

What are your requirements (daily, monthly and quarterly), and are you staying on top of them?

Daily: Your daily requirements include all compliance items, such as the paperwork you provide to your patients. Are you handing out the new 30 Supplier Standards?

Make sure your staff is collecting the appropriate documentation that will be needed for audit purposes, that you are conducting customer satisfaction surveys appropriately, maintaining required logs and that you are providing the correct phone numbers for customers to file complaints.

Monthly: While you must keep up with daily activities, also make certain you are meeting human resource requirements. Review your accreditor's requirements as some are program-specific, but overall, each accreditor must ensure that suppliers meet the HR requirements found in the CMS Final Quality Standards.

These requirements include complete orientation and competency checks for new employees, monthly educational programs for all staff as well as annual performance reviews. Each accreditor provides a detailed list of items the supplier is required to collect, including an individual personnel file for each employed staff member, full- or part-time, as well as contractors who are not employees.

Another item to remember here: Medicare does not require either background checks or drug testing at this time, but several accreditors require either or both. If your company requires either or both, be certain that your HR files are complete with this documentation.

Make sure to check your accreditor's specific requirements, use a checklist that documents every item you need to have in your HR files, and then audit every file!

Quarterly: The most important quarterly requirements to maintain are your quarterly Performance Management Activities. The CMS Final Quality Standards require that suppliers "implement a performance management plan that measures outcomes of customer service, billing practices and adverse events and, at a minimum, measure:

• Beneficiary satisfaction and complaints;

• Timeliness of response to questions, problems and concerns;

• Impact of business practices on adequacy of beneficiary access to items, services, information;