BALTIMORE — At an Open Door Forum on Wednesday, CMS officials ticked through a raft of important dates for DMEPOS providers on accreditation, the interim final rule on competitive bidding, the Recovery Audit Contractor program and use of the revised 855S enrollment form. But it was clarification on several points about the agency's new surety bond requirement that garnered the most attention from teleconference listeners.
In reviewing the $50,000 bond requirement, CMS' Jim Bossenmeyer emphasized the May 4 deadline for providers applying for Medicare enrollment. If providers have an application pending with the National Supplier Clearinghouse on that date, he said, it is subject to the bonding requirement unless the provider is exempt. Existing providers must have a bond in place by Oct. 2.
Bossenmeyer said while the agency is still working with the surety industry to come up with a bond "template," he assured providers "the market exists" and that they could find issuers. Providers must, however, use a surety approved by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and listed on its Web site.
Once providers have settled on a surety, Bossenmeyer said, that company may request any information needed to obtain a bond, such as corporate and/or personal financial statements, tax returns, NPI applications or billing policies and procedures.
When the surety has received all the materials and can begin processing the bond request, Bossenmeyer said, "what we are told is that this process should take approximately 15 days."
Bossenmeyer added that once a surety bond has been obtained, it is the provider's responsibility to send proof of that bond to the NSC.
Responding to a question on the bond deadlines, Bossenmeyer said if a provider is changing ownership, a bond must be posted by May 4, but if an existing provider is simply submitting updated information to the NSC, a bond is not required until Oct. 2. As to how many bonds providers need, he stated, "You will need a surety bond per practice location. If you are a corporation and you have four locations, you need a bond for each one with a separate NPI."
One caller asked if a Medicare surety bond would be required if providers were already holding a state-required Medicaid bond. "It will need to meet federal requirements. It will need to be from a company on the Treasury list. If you have obtained a bond from a surety that is not recognized by Treasury, you will definitely need a separate bond," Bossenmeyer responded.
He said CMS would release additional FAQs addressing that issue and others within the next weeks.
Also on the Open Door call (which drew 526 listeners):
- CMS' Sandra Bastinelli reminded listeners of the Oct. 1 accreditation deadline to retain billing privileges under Medicare. If providers have not complied by that date, she said, the NSC will begin the revocation process and providers will start receiving letters to that effect "on or after Oct. 2."
- The agency will roll out its Recovery Audit Contractor program to all 50 states in 2010. To explain the program and give information to providers in "first-wave" states, CMS will hold two special RAC Open Door Forums, one for Part A providers on April 8 and a second for Part B providers on April 14. To participate in the April 14 teleconference, which will be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. ET, dial 800/837-1935 and reference Conference ID 92489480. (For more on RACs, see RACs Ready to Rack Up Improper Payments, Nov. 17, 2008.)
- Officials encouraged providers to begin using the revised CMS-855S enrollment form now, but said it must be used on and after June 1. Access the form at www.cms.hhs.gov/cmsforms/downloads/cms855s.pdf.
- CMS' Joel Kaiser said the competitive bidding interim final rule will become effective April 18. "The law requires us to conduct a competition in 2009," he said, although he noted there is no new information about the program. "We are still evaluating a timeline to determine how to proceed in order to be in compliance with this requirement," he said.