Question:
DME supplier standards #30 states
“DMEPOS suppliers must remain open to the public for a minimum of 30 hours per week with certain exceptions.”
We have a satellite office that we see patients and as it happens also dispense DME items to them. We, however, do not meet the 30 hours requirement. There is a family practice doctor who is at the location the rest of the time so the office is not technically closed.
Will this create problems for us in a DME audit?
Any solutions?
Our main office meets the 30 hours and we dispense DME items from it. Someone is available to answer our phones also most of the week.
Answer:
Physicians offices who supply DME to their own patients are exempt from the 30 hour requirement. The issue of the family physician sharing the same office space is also not an issue as physicians who supply DME only to their own patients can share office space. This is irrespective of whether both physicians have (or only one has)supplier number(s).
Physicians who own a commercial DME company, however, are not exempt from the 30 hour rule, nor may they share space together. Examples would be a podiatrist who owns a shoe store or a pulmonologist who owns an oxygen supply company. Both would be precluded from sharing the same physical space and both would need to be open to the public for a minimum of 30 hours.
Bottom line: your scenario exempts you from the both the 30 hour rule and the sharing space rule.