ATLANTA--Accrediting organizations are temporarily changing some procedures, ramping up training workshops and posting volumes of information on their Web sites in an attempt to help HME providers meet an Oct. 31 accreditation deadline for for round two of competitive bidding.
Earlier this month, CMS announced that suppliers who want to bid in round two must be accredited or have applied for accreditation by May 14. They must be accredited by Oct. 31 in order to be awarded a contract, the agency said.
“Oct. 31 is great. It’s reasonable for anyone who wants to bid,” said accreditation expert Mary Ellen Conway, president of Capital Healthcare Group in Bethesda, Md. “But they have to get started right now and plan to have their survey in July so they have August and September to make changes if needed.”
Accreditors echoed that advice.
“Sixty days is plenty of time to submit applications,” said Bob Floro, MSL, RRT, director of the home care accreditation program for the Joint Commission in Washington, D.C. “If folks take this seriously and start this accreditation process yesterday, then yes, the October deadline is realistic.”
But providers have to meet the May deadline before they can proceed, accreditors cautioned.
“If they don’t make the May 14 deadline, they are going to miss the boat,” said Tom Caesar, president of the Raleigh, N.C.-based Accreditation Commission for Health Care. “Because a week after that deadline, we [accreditors] have to give CMS reports on who has applied.”
Conway said meeting that May deadline could be tricky for some providers, depending on the accrediting body they choose. “Some of the organizations want your application only when you are ready to be accredited. With some, you just apply; with others, when you send in your application, it means that you are ready to be surveyed.”
That latter is the procedure at ACHC, Caesar said. “When you come to us with the application, you’re saying we can come to [survey] you next week,” he said.
Because of the tight deadline, however, ACHS has temporarily modified its policy to give providers more time. Those who apply by May 14 will have until June 30 to get themselves in shape for a survey.
“Then we have to get the surveys done five weeks before Oct. 31,” Caesar said.
At the American Board for Certification in Orthotics & Prosthetics in Alexandria, Va., time is also of the essence.
“We require that a complete and final application be submitted to ABC prior to reporting that [providers] have applied to CMS. The application must be complete and the patient care business ready for survey when we notify CMS of their application,” said Tom Derrick, director of public relations.
“Right now,” he added, “the average time from application to survey is three months. In some isolated rural areas, it is up to four months.”
It may take another three months for a provider to hear whether or not it is accredited, he said.
The Joint Commission is currently scheduling May and June surveys, Floro said, and gives providers 45 days to fix whatever is not in compliance.
“When an organization applies for Joint Commission accreditation, they actually tell us which month they will be ready for a survey,” he said. “So the organization predicts when they are going to be ready. Of course, the survey is unannounced, so we are not going to promise we are going to conduct it that month, but we are not going to do it before that month.”
All the accrediting bodies are gearing up for an influx of providers seeking to become accredited in the 70 MSAs targeted for round two.
“We have been planning for quite a while to take a lot of companies in a short period of time. We can handle a large volume,” said Caesar, noting that ACHC has more than 40 dedicated DME surveyors. “We did about 400 surveys in about a three-month period last year. We don’t know [what to expect] this time. You could have a number of companies coming through a narrow funnel in a short period of time.”
Floro said the Joint Commission’s market research shows that “there appear to be 34,000 plus or minus Medicare provider numbers that are doing business in the 70 MSAs. According to our market research, [there are] 2.48 Medicare provider numbers per organization. So you’re actually dealing with 13,000 organizations.”
While Floro said he doesn’t know how many will come the Joint Commission’s way, “we can deal with any number. There’s a rumor that the Joint Commission is not accepting applications … It is just not true. We can meet any demands that come our way. We have the flexibility and the resources to do it.”
Derrick, too, said his organization has ramped up both staffing and technical capabilities. “We have a cadre of surveyors in the field and others standing by,” he said.
To further help providers, most of the accrediting bodies are posting their standards, offering checklists and providing critical information, including about training workshops, on their Web sites, they said.
ACHC also has increased the number of workshops it offers, Caesar said. “If you go through one of the workshops, they’re going to hand-hold you and get you through the process,” he said.
Derrick encouraged providers to study the Web sites of all 10 of CMS’ approved accrediting bodies to determine which accreditor is best suited to their company.
Conway also said providers should “look at the standards online and download them now. You need to find out who you want to be accredited with and find out what their program is and get going on it,” she said.