Accreditation Deadline Comes And Goes

ATLANTA

CMS’ accreditation deadline for first-round bidders came and went Oct. 31, and the accreditation rush that the agency and its 10 approved accreditors expected in the initial competitive bidding areas never came to pass.

CMS’ Sandra Bastinelli, charged with running the accreditation program, announced Oct. 11 that a total 2,200 provider locations across the 10 CBAs had been accredited. About 100 more applications were pending before the deadline, she said.

“Many providers have really struggled these past few months with the accreditation deadline,” said consultant Mary Ellen Conway of Capital Healthcare Group, Bethesda, Md., noting that an extension of the original Aug. 31 deadline did little to change providers’ timetable.

Some providers simply decided not to become accredited. “Why cough up the money if you know you’re going to be killed off in the fight?” one oxygen provider said earlier this year, comparing competitive bidding to a “kamikaze flight.”

“Who cares if you have a hole in your underwear [if] you’re about to fly your plane into the ground?”

But Conway advised providers not to wait: “Accreditation can be impossible to accomplish with very few deficiencies when you are rushing, and you will guarantee yourself an unannounced revisit if you are not prepared.”