MIAMI, Aug. 24, 2012—According to Rob Brant, board president of the Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of America (AMEPA): Medicare has finally released utilization records for Round 1 of their bidding program in home medical equipment and it did not take a Freedom of Information Act request or act of Congress to attain the records. Ironically, Medicare has included the 2011 allowable units with a corresponding list of HCPCS codes as part of the Round 1 Recompete Worksheets.

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2012—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has done an about-face on DMEPOS items provided on a recurring basis. CMS now states that billing must be based upon prospective instead of retrospective use.

Essentially, that means providers of refills to an original order must now contact beneficiaries before dispensing refills. They may no longer automatically ship on a predetermined basis, even if the beneficiary authorizes it.

The Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of America (AMEPA) has done some more digging into the issue of when credit reports should be dated for Round 2 of competitive bidding, and prompted a CBIC clarification.

Two weeks ago, a CBIC spokesperson told consultant Chris Rice that the deadline was Jan. 30. Last week, a CBIC ombudsman told AMEPA that there was no such deadline.

Accredited Medical Equipment Providers of America (AMEPA) reported last week that some HME providers were encountering delays in the competitive bidding Round 2 registration process.

The delays were coming on the eve of the Dec. 22 “Target Registration Deadline” set by Medicare. However, the official deadline for registration is 9 p.m. Feb. 9. Medicare wanted providers to register early in case there were difficulties.