By Lori Olsen - New Business Intake Manager GoldLeaf Surety Services

What is a DMEPOS Bond?
Medicare Bonds, often referred to as DMEPOS Bonds, are mandatory for manufacturers and suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS). The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a final rule titled, "Medicare Program: Surety Bond Requirement for Suppliers of Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS)" in the Federal Register on January 2, 2009. This final rule implemented Section 4312(a) of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and requires certain DMEPOS suppliers to obtain and maintain a surety bond on continuing basis. This surety bond aims to prevent fraudulent activity within the industry.

What is the bond amount?
Section 4312(b) requires that a surety bond be in the amount of not be less than $50,000. Most suppliers are required to obtain a $50,000 surety bond. However there are several exceptions.

• The bond amount will increase beyond the $50,000 for suppliers who are deemed high risk.
• Suppliers with multiple locations are required to obtain a bond for each National Provider Identifier (NPI). For example, a larger DMEPOS supplier with 20 practice locations would be required to secure a $1 million Medicare (DMEPOS) Bond, one for each location.

Who is exempt?
Suppliers who are exempt from the bonding requirement include:

• Government-owned suppliers that have provided CMS with comparable surety bond under state law. The surety bond shall state that CMS is an obligee and cover obligations concerning claims
• State-licensed orthotic and prosthetic personnel in private practice making custom orthotics and prosthetics if the business is solely-owned and operated by said personnel and is billing only for orthotic and prosthetics, and supplies
• Physicians and non-physician practitioners if the DMEPOS items are furnished only to his or her patients as part of his or her professional services
• Physical and occupation therapists if: (1) the business is solely-owned and operated by the therapist, and (2) if the DMEPOS items are furnished only to his or her patients as part of his or her professional service.

Goldleaf has a number of good surety markets that write Medicare bonds or DMEPOS. And for DMEPOS - or all types of bonds - you can access Goldleaf through Big I Markets.  
October 21, 2015
1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time
$79 - Click here to register

Participants will review the basic underpinnings of contractual liability - the difference between breach of contract and liability assumed by contract as well as assuming the liability of others in a contract. Emphasis will be on hold harmless and indemnity agreements often used in the construction industry, including the meaning of hold harmless and indemnity agreements, the parties to the agreement and the notion of performance of an obligation to hold harmless and indemnify another. With illustrations of each type of indemnity clause, the participants will explore the differences among the broad form, intermediate form and limited form indemnity clauses, including how such clauses affect third parties not a party to the indemnity. By way of certain examples, a review of limitations on indemnity agreements, including select state statute and case law, as well as a review of some statutes' "insurance exceptions" and how they may apply.

The course will examine in detail the contractual liability exclusion in the CGL policy, including whether the exclusion applies only to indemnity agreements or to other types of liability assumed by contract. A detailed review of the exceptions to the contractual liability exclusion, with emphasis on "insured contracts" will be undertaken. Also discussed will be the CGL policy's provision for defense of an indemnitee and what types of indemnity agreements are not "insured contracts." The course will conclude with a review of the fundamental differences between indemnification and additional insured, including the rights of each, and the issues created with tying additional insured coverage to an indemnity provision. VU webinar questions can be sent to bestpractices@iiaba.net.  

 

Be one of the first five with the correct answers and win an envy-inspiring TFT Trivia T-shirt. Don't forget to answer the Tie Breaker!

1. The myth of the mermaid is most commonly believed to have come from lonely sailors sighting what?

2. The Reno brothers were the first to do this in peacetime on this date (October 6) in 1866.

3. In 1978 a KGB agent fatally poisoned Bulgarian president Georgi Markov using what common item

 

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