The American Association for Homecare voiced its opposition to a ruling by CMS that physicians, therapists and other providers that also provide DME and HME do not have to obtain accreditation in order to continue billing Medicare.

Last week, CMS further explained that “eligible professionals” for the exemption, as outlined in the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) — the law that delayed competitive bidding – included physicians, physical or occupational therapists, qualified speech-language pathologists and practitioners, physician assistants, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and clinical social workers.

That said, HME providers must still obtain accreditation by the Sept. 30, 2009 deadline, or they will no longer be able to continue billing Medicare.

The exemption came after the American Physical Therapy Association American Medical Association, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Podiatric Medical Association, the Medical Group Management Association, the American Occupational Therapy Association, and the American Optometric Association worked to convince CSM to eliminate their constituencies from the accreditation process.

“This is a huge victory for patients and health care professionals across this nation,” said American Physical Therapy Association president R Scott Ward, PT, PhD, in a prepared statement. “Physical therapists already provide care of the highest quality, so these unnecessary requirements would have been overly burdensome, costly and could have created obstacles for patients needing these services.”

On the flip side, the providers are left wondering why accreditation seems necessarily only in certain circumstances, namely, the HME industry.

Not surprisingly AAHomecare released a statement voicing its opposition to the exemptions. The Association has supported accreditation of home medical equipment (HME) providers for many years and opposed the recent postponement by CMS of accreditation deadlines connected to Round Two of bidding.

commented that “Accreditation helps to ensure that patients receive high-quality homecare, and it is also an important tool in preventing fraud in the Medicare program,” said Tyler J. Wilson, president and CEO of AAHomecare, in a prepared statement.