Are providers skirting the law in Ga.?
By HME News Staff
Updated Tue December 31, 2002
ATLANTA - A year after Georgia Medicaid began requiring that professionals who fit custom wheelchairs and seating systems be members of NRRTS, it looks like there are providers trying to skirt the requirement.
Several members of NRRTS have contacted the organization, saying that some rehab providers who aren't NRRTS members have asked them to sign evaluations for them.
“There's no evidence that any of our members have even considered it,” said Dave Kruse, president of NRRTS. “They contacted us to make sure we were on top of it.”
NRRTS published an open letter to members in its most recent newsletter, saying that the organization's standards of practice prohibit members from signing evaluations for a client they haven't seen.
Georgia Medicaid's Pat Ross said as far as she knows, it has never happened. She said the department has a list of NRRTS members, as well as the companies they work for, and it cross checks incoming evaluations with that list.
Ross said she wouldn't be surprised if providers are trying to skirt the requirement, though. When the requirement went into effect a year ago, Ross said the department received resistance from some providers.
“Providers get pretty desperate,” she said. “But we've stood behind our policy.” HME
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