Last week, CMS held a DMEPOS, Home Health and Hospice Open Door Forum in which they announced some updates for the next round of competititve bidding. To start, bidder education will begin for the provider community in May, with registration and the bid window opening in June.
If you are interested in submitting a bid to participate in the next round, you need to start preparing now. The Competitive Bidding Implementation Contractor (CBIC) recently published an article to their website providing initial steps you should take to be ready when the bid opens in June. Check out the step-by-step list below.
Competitive Bidding Preparation
- Ensure your enrolmment information in Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) is up to date and correct. When creating your account in the CMS Enterprise Portal, information provided by the authorized official (AO) and backup authorized official(s) (BAO(s)) must match exactly with PECOS enrollment records.
- Determine the Provider Transaction Access Number (PTAN) or billing number you will use to access DBidS and Connexion when registration opens in June. You must enter this same PTAN to access DBidS and Connexion.
- Designate one AO listed on your organization’s CMS-855S enrollment application to act as your AO for registration purposes. AOs must register first and must approve other users’ requests to access DBidS and Connexion.
When bidder registration opens in June 2019 for Round 2021, you will:
- Log into the CMS Enterprise Portal with your CMS user ID and password.
- Request access to DBidS and Connexion.
- Select the same role (AO, BAO, or end user (EU)) for DBidS and Connexion.
- Enter the same company information and PTAN for both DBidS and Connexion. The company LBN and PTAN must be valid in PECOS.
Specific instructions and a registration guide will be posted on the CBIC website.
If you are interested in the program and want to determine if a bid submission is right for your organization we can help!
The van Halem Group offers consultation services related to Competitive Bid topics. Preparing for the next round of Competitive Bidding is much like starting a new HME business. Whether you are currently providing any of the items on the product categories list or simply have an idea of what products you will bid on in the future, our team of experts can help.
Contact us for more information!