The unfortunate lady in the vintage photograph is Fanny Mills, who was known as “The Ohio Big Footed Girl”. Fanny lived in Sandusky Ohio in the late 1800’s and suffered from Milroy’s Disease, which is a congenital disease that causes lymphedema and generally poor circulation in the lower extremities. There was no treatment for this disorder at the time and Fanny lived with the condition into her 40’s. She eventually succumbed to the disease and her cause of death was listed as “abscess”. The photos were taken when she worked in a dime museum, a place similar to a circus sideshow that featured performers and exhibits of medical oddities. Sadly, her affliction was untreatable at the time. Lymphedema is still around, but thankfully is much more treatable today than in the 19th century!
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Topics:
HQAA Accreditation,
CMS,
DMEPOS
Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of DME owners, managers, and staff more than the Office of the Inspector General (the “OIG”). The fear is perhaps deserved by an extremely small handful of industry people. The vast majority of our industry rank and file have nothing to fear from this sometimes maligned and misunderstood government agency.
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Topics:
Billing,
HQAA Accreditation,
HME Accreditation Requirements,
Compliance,
Avoiding Deficiencies,
CMS,
Business Practices,
OIG
As the world slowly but surely returns to normal, surveyors will take to the road once again to visit durable medical equipment organizations across the United States. For several months CMS suspended the accreditation process. On August 12, 2020, CMS gave the approval to resume surveys both onsite and virtual visits (with a follow up onsite visit), or a combination of onsite and virtual survey. With these new guidelines, CMS and the accrediting bodies are beginning to resume surveys with slightly revised procedures and protocols.
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Topics:
Renewing Accreditation,
Quality Standards,
HQAA Accreditation,
HME Accreditation Requirements,
Compliance,
CMS,
Surveys
Early last month, I started penning a blog article relating to Covid-19. I modified it multiple times and finally scrapped the idea because it was too sensitive a topic, too important to cover in something as “casual” as a blog, and because the information was coming in and changing so fast that anything I wrote would be outdated by the time it was submitted. My, how a couple weeks can change the world…
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Topics:
CMS,
Infection Control
Many in the home medical equipment industry equate policy manuals to their accreditation inspections. And of course, these bulky tomes are certainly a large part of the accreditation and survey experience for every DME. Policy manuals serve as the road map for how work gets done within an organization, a set of rules for the organization, and the document that defines the structure, function, and philosophy of the organization. Let’s look at what a policy manual should contain and how it impacts not only accreditation, but also the overall day-to-day operation of an organization.
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Topics:
Employee Training,
HIPAA,
Security,
Personnel Files,
Quality Improvement,
Billing,
Renewing Accreditation,
Quality Standards,
HQAA Accreditation,
HME Accreditation Requirements,
Patient File Requirements,
Compliance,
Patient Privacy,
Clinical Practice Guidelines,
Materials Management,
Avoiding Deficiencies,
CMS,
Complaint Process,
Quality Care,
Showroom,
Retail,
Delivery,
Clinical Respiratory Services,
Oxygen,
Warehouse,
Safety Officer,
Competence,
Customer Service,
Disaster Preparedness,
Emergencies,
Business Practices,
Marketing
In July 2018, CMS made a rather important announcement: that effective January 1, 2019, after the current bid schedule expires December 31st, 2018, any Medicare provider can supply durable medical equipment and supplies to Medicare patients/recipients. This will likely continue until the next round of bidding takes place, which will be at least a calendar year later. This rule revision, known in the industry as the “Any Willing Provider” provision, is something the industry has talked about since competitive bidding began. “Wouldn’t it be fair,” one provider I spoke with posited, “if they {CMS} settled on a bid amount and opened it up to any credentialed, accredited, licensed DME to provide equipment and services?”
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Topics:
CMS,
Retail,
Marketing
On August 16th the Accreditation Organizations received the notice below from CMS and we were asked to share the information with all suppliers.
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Topics:
Quality Standards,
CMS
