CMS Surety Bond
A CMS 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 CMS surety bond. Separate CMS surety bonds are required for each National Provider Identifier (NPI) obtained for DMEPOS billing purposes.
CMS bonds may also be referred to as Medicare surety bonds, Medicaid 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 CMS 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 CMS 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 simple, fast solutions for all types of surety bonding in all 50 states. We offer our customers extremely competitive pricing with multiple national carriers as well as world class support. For a free consultation about your surety bonding needs, please call 510-435-8425 or contact us. Or, to apply for a free quote, please complete our surety bond application.
