A Medicare surety bond is a license and permit surety bond required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for all suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS). Suppliers generally will be required to post a $50,000 medicare surety bond. Separate medicare surety bonds are required for each National Provider Identifier (NPI) obtained for DMEPOS billing purposes.
Medicare bonds may also be referred to as Medicaid surety bonds, CMS surety bonds, DMEPOS surety bonds, Durable Medical Equipment surety bonds, Pharmacy surety bonds or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services surety bonds.
The purposes of the medicare surety bond are to:
- limit the Medicare program risk to fraudulent suppliers
- enhance the legitmacy of the Medicare enrollment process and current suppliers
- ensure the Medicare program is indemnified for erroneous payments resulting from fraudulent or abusive supplier billing practices
- ensure Medicare beneficiaries receive reasonable products and services from legitmate suppliers
The Medicare surety bond requirement became a final rule in the Federal Register on January 2, 2009. Broadly, new suppliers must meet the surety bond requirement by May 4, 2009 and existing suppliers are required to comply by October 2, 2009. Certain suppliers may be exempt from the new requirement.
Alpha Surety is a nationwide surety bond broker offering all types of surety bonding. Complete our surety bond application to apply for a surety bond now. Or, for a free consultation about your surety bonding needs, please call 510-435-8425 or contact us.
