Accreditation: Be patient with process

A. The DMEPOS provider submits an application to the accrediting organization (AO) along with the required documentation and the specified fee.

The AO staff verifies the provider's information and certification or licensure and appropriate staff licenses (if applicable). The AO staff also evaluates the application, supporting documents and sample documentation against the CMS quality standards.

Following the documentation review process, the AO communicates with the applicant to request any outstanding documents that were not submitted with the application, or they may request revisions to any documents that did not meet the quality standards.

The AO conducts an unannounced, on-site survey during normal business hours. It will conduct, whenever practical, concurrent surveys and involve other applicable agencies to best meet the needs of CMS, the DMEPOS provider and the AO.

The AO also conducts an unannounced survey of the accredited DMEPOS provider once every three years, to review, evaluate and monitor the provider, its performance and its continued compliance with the quality standards. Complaints (from any beneficiary, regulatory agency or CMS) and/or a change in critical operations or business structure, such as a change in ownership, could prompt an unannounced on-site survey at other times.

Please note that if the AO receives information indicating that there is a serious issue of non-compliance with the applicable standards, it may initiate a procedure to deny accreditation to the applicant prior to conducting a

survey.

Roni Pidcock is vice president of Quality Healthcare Systems. She can be reached at 855.747.5555 or qhshealth@gmail.com.