Move It Up with a Bullet

• Buy dog food.
• Pick up dry cleaning.
• Go to grocery store.

Now you know some of the very exciting ways in which I spend my time, since these are a few of the chores that always show up on my “to-do” list for the week.

We all make them. Those lists that help us set out goals, plan, prioritize and bring a little order to the details of our days. They are a simple but effective method of organizing what might otherwise be, at least in my case, some semi-chaotic errand running. (And, yes, I admit it. My list helps me remember what I’m supposed to be doing.)

I imagine that as a successful home medical equipment provider, staying profitable and serving your customers well are the things that remain as constants on your to-do list. But along with these continuing tasks, there is another important item that should be moving up that list with a silver bullet: getting accredited. In fact, this is more than just a “sometime-I’ll-get-to-it” issue; accreditation could soon be a requisite “must-do” item that will allow you to remain in business.

Mandated by the Medicare Modernization Act, at some future point providers will have to meet a quality standard in order to do business with the government (read, get reimbursed by Medicare). But according to the results of HomeCare‘s recent provider survey, only 44 percent said their companies were accredited. Of the providers who said they weren’t, only 27 percent told us they had plans to apply for accreditation.

I don’t know what the rest of the company owners’ plans include, but if staying in business is among them, then many gave us the wrong answer. Ignoring a coming quality standard will not make it go away.

Granted, we’re not sure yet exactly what the provider standard will be. Nor do we know exactly when it will take effect. But Washington insiders are predicting that it will be sooner rather than later. In fact, a general consensus among members of the government’s Program Advisory and Oversight Committee (PAOC), which is advising CMS on competitive bidding, is that quality standards for providers should be determined and in place before the bidding program begins in 2007.

So why wait, when with accreditation — as long as you start the process in a timely manner (read, now) — you should be quality-ready, and ready to bid?

After all the legislative and regulatory struggles you’ve dealt with over the past decade, earning accreditation should be, relatively speaking, an achievable goal. Move this item up on your to-do list for the year — and make sure it gets done.

For more on the PAOC, see page 20. For information on the industry’s recognized accrediting bodies, contact: Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), www.achc.org, 919/785-1214; Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP), www.chapinc.org, 800/656-9656; Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, www.jcaho.com, 630/792-5000.