| Staying Accredited! |
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Congratulations to all of our clients and friends for successfully completing the accreditation process. We know first hand what a huge challenge it is! The NSC recently reported that nearly 30 thousand providers have not completed the process, so you should be well proud of your organization if you have your certificate in hand.
You don't want to start from scratch when it comes close to the time to be resurveyed, do you?
If you have our Continuous Accreditation Compliance (CAC) program you're all set, and we'll always be here to help you. And we have some very special pricing on the program right now for folks that don't already have our software (see promo pricing at the bottom of this email). But even if you don't think you need that type of assistance we still have some great tips for you!
Click here to download a pdf presentation focused on tips to help you maintain your company's
accreditation compliance between surveys. We're sure it will be helpful to helping you maintain your accredited status. |
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Click to visit or join our page as a fan!
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Greetings!
Now that the mad rush to complete accreditation by the CMS deadline of Sept 30th is almost over we are going try to get our newsletter out in a more consistent manner to keep our clients and friends up to date on the latest issues impacting the HME industry.
Larger updates like this one will happen quarterly, with occasional shorter newsletters as needed based on industry happenings. We hate spam, so we won't send it either - just news we think you can use. Thanks for subscribing! |
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Free Medtrade Exhibit Passes |
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We'll have a booth at Medtrade in Atlanta, Oct 12th - 15th, and we hope all of our current, past, and prospective clients will have a chance to stop by and say hello! You can find us at booth #3836. In addition, I will be presenting a seminar on Oct 13th at 8 AM about maintaining your company's accreditation status.
We are also pleased to announce the availability of free exhibit passes. If you plan to attend but still need a pass, click here for free registration courtesy of Domos HME Consulting Group. You may register as many individuals from your organization as you wish. |
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New Consignment Closet Rules |
The practice, widely known as "consignment closets" or "stock-and-bill" arrangements with physician offices and non-physician practitioners will be outlawed, effective March 2010 for all Medicare beneficiaries. If you want to provide products for the type of patients that were formerly served by a stock and bill arrangement with physician offices, you will need to instruct the patient and "set up" the product yourself. You will no longer be permitted to allow the physician office staff members to complete the set-up process for you.
While this sounds like bad news for some of our customers, please remember that many of the national providers that you compete with may be greatly hampered by this new rule. This may be an opportunity for you to break into some new markets in your area while they scramble to adjust to this new rule - particularly those of you in the TENS, e-stim, orthotics devices / braces business. Many national providers in those areas of the DME business do not have the personnel to provide product set-up at the physician practices - instead they often have one rep for a large geographical area. So I encourage you to think of ways to make this rule benefit your business.
Our understanding is that this will not impact your ability to continue to offer consignment inventory to facilities such hospitals. Our favorite HME legal eagles, Brown and Fortunato, have graciously provided a written interpretation of the rule that they are allowing us to share with our clients and friends. You can download the legal opinion in pdf format here. |
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CAC Program Updates |
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Just a reminder to our CAC clients -- we have published a fairly large update to the program in order to help you stay in compliance as the rules have changed (or added to, unfortunately). Here are few tips to make staying in compliance as painless as possible for you and your company:
1. We stay on top of changes and update as needed rather than on any set schedule. CMS, all 10 CMS approved accrediting bodies, and other regulatory bodies (OSHA, FDA, FTC, DOT, etc.), whose rules eventually make their way into CMS and accrediting body rules, have their own schedule for updates/changes. And unfortunately none of them coordinate updates / changes with each other.
Accordingly we suggest that you assign one staff member to check the announcement tab of the CAC Reference Workspace every 1 to 2 weeks for any updates / changes / revisions that may occur. It is less overwhelming to deal with a few updates at a time rather than to let them build up. If you do fall behind you can always sort the announcements by the date posted column and check updates back to the date where you left off. And of course announcements that have not yet been read by you will have the little "red gleam" next to them.
2. We know you are probably just relieved to have the accreditation process over with, and would be happy not to hear the word "accreditation" again for a good long while. However, we strongly suggest you utilize the CAC task management tool to set follow-up dates on individual tasks according to the recommended follow-up timeframe we have provided in the task directions. We have taken great care to space them out so that you should never be overwhelmed again by the accreditation process, yet still remain compliant with the expectations of your chosen accrediting body.
Remember, the CAC program is like having an accreditation expert available to your company whenever you need one. Don't hesitate to call us with any questions -- we truly love hearing from our clients. |
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Client Satisfaction Survey/ Request for Testimonials |
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Our main obejective as a consulting company for HME providers is to assist our clients in meeting regulatory and accreditation requirements, along with operational goals, so they can focus on the tasks of providing patient care and ensuring continued profitability. After 10 years in business I can honestly say that the feedback we receive from our clients has been key to helping us more effectively assist DME providers.
Please take a moment to complete our short survey so that we can better assist you in the future. The survey also includes a place to offer a testimonial about our products and services. If you are so inclined to write something brief that we could publish on our website I would be extremely grateful. Please include your name and company name at the end of the testimonial if you will agree to let us publish your comments on our website.
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Staying Accredited - Save on our CAC Program! |
If you are already accredited, but do not yet have a subscription to our Continuous Accreditation Compliance (CAC) Program we have an excellent savings opportunity for you that will help you maintain your accreditation status and ensure that you are always up to date with new policies, forms, and templates - developed as accrediting body and CMS quality standards change. And you'll have access to expert consultants should you have questions that are unique to your business!
The CAC program is normally $1455, but is available for a limited time for $999 for currently accredited organizations looking for a cost effective solution for remaining in compliance.
If you are a previous on-site client that does not have the CAC program we have an even better deal that you won't be able to refuse. Call us for details!
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Thanks for reading, and as always, please don't hesitate to call us with any questions!
Sincerely,
Domos HME Consulting Group
phone: 425-882-2035 |
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