[Cuda]

Just had a disturbing call from a client. Given that they are in South Florida they get constant visits from NSC reps., each time a different person. The visit today was very disturbing. The NSC rep made some notes and started to leave. Fortunately, the supplier stopped him and demanded to know what the notes were about. The rep indicated that the supplier did not have their hours posted on their front door. The supplier politely pointed to the posted hours and asked what those were, then informed the rep that they had just passed an accreditation re-visit with flying colors and if the hours were not there the accreditation agency would have documented it. Here's the problem, if the supplier had not stopped this guy, he would have falsely reported a problem on the supplier! And, we all know how difficult it is to do battle with NSC and CMS. Moral of the story, do not let these reps just come in and leave without questioning them as to their findings. This is an honest supplier in a hotbed of fraud and all they want is for these reps to shut down the fraudulent suppliers. It appears they are going at all costs to find anything,even if not true, to cause problems for the suppliers.

[Regina]

We had a visit last year, and the rep seemed like everything was fine, and then left us a list of 27(!) violations she had found. All but two of them were wrong. She said that we didn't have our hours posted(we do), that we didn't have our legal name posted(not required if using DBA name), etc. We had to send a lot of paperwork to prove her wrong. We were just discussing this, and we are convinced that they are paid like the audit contractors- by the violation. It is then on us to prove that we were not in violation. This borders on harassment.

[Cuda]

That is just down right scary!! I think the harrassment level will do nothing but increase and you are correct. You are guilty until you prove yourself innocent. I have been in this industry for almost 25 years and I have never witnessed such a witch hunt as what I see going on in DME right now. And no one is making CMS accountable for their actions. Instead, they lie to congress to save their own tail and award competitive bid contracts to companies who admit they face bankruptcy! Meanwhile, they harrass suppliers with audit contractors who overstep the bounderies and are literally putting good, hard working, honest suppliers out of business. Threatening suppliers with fraudulent claims if they knowingly file a non-PECOS compliant claim, making suppliers responsible for physician's actions or lack of actions. Every where you look, the supplier is being hammered. If you can't tell that this is harrassment of an entire industry, then please tell me what is. In the mean time, can someone please explain to me why a national DME is STILL allowed to use Texas Academy of Family Physician fill in the blank forms to justify power equipment? CMS will nail an independent supplier for an illegible physician signature, but allow another supplier to continue to use forms specifically stated as not useable by CMS. Bet if you or I tried using them they would deny every claim!

[HEATHER]

It has been several years - but they did the same thing to us about our hours not being posted. It has been so long I can't remember if I knew about it before they left the building or if we got notice later - but the inspector had even taken a picture of our sign!