Memo to NSC: Mr. Blue says this is no way to live your life

Be warned: This story could get your blood boiling and ruin your weekend.

A provider called me up the other day with another horror story about the NSC. As you no doubt know, a bunch of HME providers voluntarily revoked their supplier numbers last fall, when it became apparent they would not be accredited by the Oct. 1, 2009.

They did that expecting that the NSC would reinstate their numbers once they became accredited. Unfortunately, like the provider who called me, they have no idea when the NSC will reinstate their numbers.

Here's what this provider, I'll call him Mr. Blue, had to say:

"I called the NSC yesterday because it had been three weeks since I filed my reactivation, and I was told the application has not even been looked at. I was going to contact my congressman so I decided to do a follow up call with the NSC and ask them what the timeframe was for being reactivated. And according to the woman at NSC, Medicare has put a gag order on the NSC and will not allow them to discuss timeframes, backlogs, anything with anyone."

"I told the women, 'You mean that Medicare is coming in and telling you that you cannot provide any information?' She said that, 'As it relates to the this, we cannot.

"I said, 'Who is the person that my reactivation has been assigned to?'  And she said, 'We don't know. It is still just sitting there.'"

This kind of inattentive, unconcerned government behavior doesn't surprise Mr. Blue.

"I worked for the VA for 10 years, and the  reason I quit is because my supervisor said to me, 'Why are you getting upset? You'll still get your paycheck in two weeks, don't worry about this stuff.' I decided I did not want to go through life like that."

Mike Moran