Medicare HME surety bond
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sends letter June 8 to HCFA Administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle reiterating the Iowa Republican's criticism of the agency proposal to impose a sliding surety bond requirement of $50,000-3,000,000 on Medicare home medical equipment suppliers. As expected, Grassley's correspondence requests elimination of the anti-fraud measure's sliding scale and requests HCFA simply require the $50,000 amount ("The Gray Sheet" June 8, p. 17). "A business is no more 'legitimate' when it obtains a bond for $3,000,000 than it would be if it had a bond for $50,000," the letter reads. HCFA's final HME surety bond rule is expected to be published by the end of the summer