Open Door Forum: Get Ready for July 1

BALTIMORE–When the inevitable question of whether or not
competitive bidding would go forward was raised during a CMS Open
Door Forum Wednesday, an agency official answered: “Nothing
has been decided yet.”

Following a brief presentation that revealed little new
information, CMS opened the phone lines for questions from the 376
listeners in attendance. Few were asked, but one hit home as the
question of the day.

“Since there is some possibility that Congress will act on
some legislation to delay competitive bidding, how will the world
be notified when and if that happens?… I am just curious if you
have in place a set of rubrics so people will know what they are
supposed to do if they hear that something was passed,” an
audience member asked, referring to a then-pending Senate vote on
delay of the program. (See related story in this issue.)

CMS’ Martha Kuespert responded: “At this point I just want
to say that we are speeding forward with implementation for July 1.
We all know how things go on Capitol Hill. We are, of course, aware
of what’s going on up there and we are prepared to deal with
whatever happens and notify people if there is a delay. There are
all kinds of ways that we have to notify the supplier
community–list servs, Web postings, things of that nature, but we
want to stress that everybody needs to be ready for July 1 for the
program to start up.”

As a follow-up, the questioner asked, “So people should go
ahead as planned until they hear something directly from
CMS?” To which Kuespert replied, “Well, I think that’s
right. I mean, no law has been passed.”

In addition to encouraging all providers to be ready for July 1,
CMS also presented the following information during last week’s
conference call:

–The final version of the supplier quality standards is now in
the “internal clearance process,” according to CMS’
Sandra Bastinelli. She said that once the quality standards clear
the process–most likely by the end of July–they will be posted on
CMS’ Web site.

–Zip code files for both mail order and non-mail order diabetic
testing supplies have been posted on the CMS competitive bidding
Web site at www.cms.hhs.gov/DMEPOScompetitivebid.

–On a related note, CMS revealed it has not yet come up with a
clarification on the definition of “mail order.”
“We’re still working on it,” an official said.

CMS’ next Open Door Forum for Home Health, Hospice and DME is
scheduled Aug. 13.