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KMAP BULLETIN: Reminder - Solicitation by Medical Equipment Suppliers

Date: 06/13/24

KMAP General Bulletin 24129 (PDF)

WARNING: Potential Fraud Alert Reminder - Solicitation by Medical Equipment Suppliers

Physicians and mid-level practitioners

We are requesting your active participation in closely reviewing all faxed requests your office receives for durable medical equipment (DME) and compounded pharmaceutical preparations. An increase in inappropriate soliciting by questionable entities has been reported by physicians and members. These reports include:

  • Unsolicited orders for medical equipment or supplies, often with wording such as “We received a call from your patient Jane Doe who wants you to order…” listing multiple items on a preprinted order for you to approve.
  • Advertisements that Medicare or Medicaid will provide you with payment for referrals of patients.
  • Completed medical necessity forms with instructions to “Sign and Date Here”.
  • Media advertisements targeting consumers indicating DME items which would be of no cost to them.
  • Requests from DME suppliers, or their corporate partners, whom you have provided physician orders for in the past requesting different items or an increased quantity.

Most of these schemes are obvious in their attempts to get you to approve unnecessary medical equipment and supplies. You are under no obligation to support or justify these supplier solicitations or to sign orders for items you did not initiate, or items provided by the DME supplier at the patient’s request without prior consultation.

  • Report suspected abuse to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) at 785-368-6220 or 1-866-551-6328.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Division of Health Care Finance (KDHE-DHCF) requests prescribing providers to be proactive in preventing and reducing the impact of these schemes by:

  • Paying careful attention to orders asking for your signature.   Note: Before signing, ask your staff to provide the patient’s   medical record and review it before signing the order.
  • Carefully reviewing unsolicited orders for patients no longer in your practice or those you have not seen for a long period of time.
  • Documenting in your patient’s medical record the medical necessity for any item of DME ordered for your patient, similar to (or part of) your patient’s medication list.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published guidelines available.