Providers Procrastinate on Surety Bonds

ATLANTA — In spite of CMS’ warnings that their Medicare
billing privileges will be revoked without one, there are plenty of
HME companies that haven’t yet obtained a surety bond, according to a recent
HomeCare poll.
 
In answering the magazine’s Web poll question in
June—“Have you obtained a DMEPOS surety bond
yet?”—only 19 percent of the participants said they had
a surety bond. Another 19 percent said they had applied to obtain
the $50,000 bond. But almost half (46 percent) said they had not
begun the process, even though they planned to obtain a bond before
CMS’ mandatory Oct. 2 deadline.
 
According to industry experts, however, waiting could mean
wanting.
 
The process could take as little as 15 days, noted Sue Mairena, COO
of the American Association for Homecare, which is offering bonds
through Aon Affinity Insurance Services. But depending on the
financial information the bond issuer might require, it could also
take months.
 
“You don’t want to wait until two weeks before the Oct.
2 deadline,” Mairena cautioned.
 
Even though some surety companies have added additional staff to
handle an influx of applications, delays could increase as the
window of time narrows.

“The closer we get to the need-by date, the bigger the
flood will be, and things may slow down as to turnaround
time,” said John Liberty, vice president of bond issuer
Cushman Industries, Herndon, Va.
 
Warren Freeman, director of sales and marketing for VGM Insurance,
Waterloo, Iowa, said he has already seen one glitch. The National
Supplier Clearinghouse has rejected some bonds because a provider
didn’t include some information or signed a document on the
wrong line, he said.
 
“I believe they are looking at everything,” Freeman
said. “If there is any question, they are going back to the
provider.”
 
That could eat up time and, if the surety bond is not in place by
the deadline, perhaps put a provider’s Medicare standing in
jeopardy, bond issuers said.  
 
But some providers apparently aren’t worried. Fourteen
percent of the 194 Web poll participants said their companies
didn’t have a surety bond and they didn’t intend to get
one.
 
For more from the surety bond experts, see “Bond, Surety Bond,” at www.homecaremag.com.