This is in response to a FQHC question raised on the September 3, 2008, special open door forum: DMEPOS Accreditation - MIPPA 2008 Guidance. Durable medical equipment (DME) is not covered within the Medicare federally qualified health clinic (FQHC) benefit.

All FQHC’s would need to have a durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) supplier number in order to bill for those separately, and go through the same process as any other DME supplier. Thus, all FQHC’s billing for the products covered under the DME quality standards would be subject to the accreditation deadline of September 30, 2009, in order to continue to bill for these supplies.

If you would like a list of those supplies, please go to the Web site at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicareprovidersupenroll/ . There is a link on the upper left-hand side of the page for DMEPOS Accreditation. Once on that site, you will find the 10 accreditation organizations, the quality standards, and a fact sheet listing all of the covered items.