Last year the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a regulation designed to regulate vendors who sell durable medical equipment (DME) to Medicare patients.  The rule sought to require DME vendors to become accredited and obtain a surety bond prior to selling DME to Medicare patients.  The IOA was among the first organizations to seek an exemption for licensed healthcare professionals, like optometrists.

After intervention by Congress, CMS published its final rule in January 2009 and specifically exempted optometrists and physicians from the new requirements.  This is because these professions are licensed and, unlike other DME providers, they can face action against their licenses if they improperly bill Medicare for DME.

However, the surety bond requirement will apply to an optometrist or physician if there is not doctor-patient relationship when the DME is provided to the patient.  This is to avoid the use of optometrists or physicians as figureheads by DME vendors to avoid the new requirements.  Additionally, opticians will require a surety bond because they are not exempt under the rule. If a practice employs an optician and the optician has a DME supplier number, the whole practice may need to obtain a surety bond to meet the new CMS requirement.