If a DME company was not awarded a contract they will not be able to accept new patients as of January 1, 2011. These patients must be sent to a contracted supplier.
Separate Contracts for Each Product

You should note that there are 8 product categories within the program. Each product category has it’s own contract. Therefore, a provider needs to have been awarded a contract for the particular product your patient requires.

Grandfathering Prior Patients

Providers may “Grandfather” their existing Medicare patients. This means that if rental equipment has been delivered to a patient before the program begins, Medicare will continue to pay the non-contracted provider. However, that company must elect to be keep these patients by providing notice to them. Further, if these products require supplies that are ordinarily billed to Medicare, those supplies must be provided by a contract supplier.

The patient also has a say in which company they receive their equipment from.  Despite a non-contract suppliers desire to retain the patient they may opt to switch to a contracted supplier. A non-contract supplier may opt to not grandfather their patients. In this event the patient must be referred to a contract supplier for continued service.

Those product categories are:
Oxygen
Hospital Beds
CPAP, BiPAP & Masks
Enteral Nutrition
Diabetic Testing Supplies
Walkers
Scooters & Power Chairs