Please review Legislation tab on left side of Home Page - some very interesting information available
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT - do it today
Call Sen. Arlen Specter & Sen. Robert P. Casey, Jr. TODAY to encourage passage of a permanent exemption of pharmacies from Medicare DME accreditation requirements by March 1st, which was included in the bi-partisan agreement developed by Senators Charles Grassley and Max Baucus.
Tell your Senators that accreditation requirements THREATEN Medicare beneficiaries' access to important health care items, such as diabetes testing supplies. Creating this exemption would allow pharmacies to continue to serve Medicare patients' DME needs and save accredited pharmacies the expense and hassle of re-accreditation every three years.
We appreciate the extension granted in the fall to January 1st. However, a new extension has not been adopted and a permanent exemption will avoid having many pharmacies lose their billing numbers and assure that patients have access to these critical supplies.
Accreditation requirements are time-consuming, costly and redundant for community pharmacists, who are already subject to regulation at the state level.
Call Sen. Arlen Specter at (202) 224-4254
Call Sen. Robert P. Casey, Jr. at (202) 224-6324
For compliance guidance and other information about accreditation process, click here to visit the DME section of www.pharmacistelink.com.
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
URGENT NOTICE FOR PHARMACIES NOT ALREADY ACCREDITED
If you have not yet been accredited and/or have not yet received a notification from The National Supplier Clearinghouse that they have received and confirmed your request to remove DMEPOS product categories or voluntarily terminate your Medicare Part B DMEPOS number, the time to do so is NOW! Send an amended CMS 855s form removing DMEPOS from the list of products you supply. The consequences of not taking action can be quite severe.
NSC has already begun revoking Medicare Part B numbers for some Pharmacies that failed to take this action by the January 1st deadline. Revocation could mean you will be prohibited from reapplying for your number for one year and approving your application can take up to an additional nine months. Your billing privileges could therefore take up to 21 months to be reinstated, even if you are planning on billing Part B drugs only.
I cannot stress this enough, from past experience it is known that waiting until the last minute of any deadline is extremely risky.
Do Not Wait. Take action now and amend your CMS855s for DMEPOS to remove any DMEPOS product categories (including diabetic testing supplies) from your Part B number.
Get Accredited! The sooner you are accredited, the sooner you can re-amend your CMS 855s and begin billing for again DMEPOS. Remember, the current law states you cannot bill Medicare for DMEPOS products if you were not accredited by the January 1, 2010 deadline.
Please remember that Keystone has partnered with NASI, a PRS affiliate, and RJ Hedges & Company to assist you with your accreditation needs.
See Directory for Contact Information
*************************************************************************************************
March 6th, 2010
While it looks as though an exemption is possible through Health Reform -- There will still be many DME contracts available through Health Plans that will still require accreditation for participation.