DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Basics: The 5 W’s

competitive bidding

competitive biddingBy: Michael Silverman

WHO (does it impact)?

Any Medicare enrolled DMEPOS supplier that desires to service a Medicare Part B beneficiary with any medical equipment or device that is included in Medicare’s Competitive Bidding Program.

WHAT (is competitive bidding and what DMEPOS supplies are covered)?

In a nutshell, it’s essentially this: if a DMEPOS supplier wants to service a Medicare Part B patient with any of the following medical supplies covered by Medicare’s Competitive Bidding Program, such supplier must submit and win a ‘bid’ to provide such item in each and every geographic region covered by the Competitive Bidding Program in which they wish to be able to service beneficiaries within.Continue reading

Marketing for DME & Pharmacy Providers: Know Your Subcontractor!

Florida estate tax planning

marketing for dmeBy: Michael Silverman

Regulatory compliance is a mandatory investment for any healthcare business owner looking to stay out of serious and personal legal peril, let alone one hoping to keep their company viable.

Yet there is seemingly an onslaught of providers that blatantly run afoul of many of these regulations, knowingly or not, or those that believe they may have found a loophole.

Concerning the latter, there is an important mantra that such DME and pharmacy providers should remember and live by: “[W]hat a provider cannot do directly, it cannot do indirectly through an intermediary.”

Marketing for DME – What exactly am I talking about?

DME providers enrolled with CMS (should) know they cannot solicit or ‘cold call’ Medicare Part B beneficiaries, per the Federal Anti-Solicitation Statute, and that they cannot offer anything of value to a potential patient that could induce them to utilize them as a provider, in accordance with the Beneficiary Inducement Statute.Continue reading