The January 2010 issue of HomeCare magazine has reported that approximately 11,000 providers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) had seen their Medicare provider numbers revoked due to new accreditation and surety-bond requirements, with approximately 4,700 more withdrawing from the program voluntarily as of December 15, 2009. The total number no longer doing business at that time equaled approximately 15 percent of the some 105,000 suppliers and pharmacies who held supplier numbers in October 2009, the magazine stated, quoting an unnamed CMS spokesman.
Peter Ashkenaz, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) deputy director of media affairs, stated that he had spoken to HomeCare magazine on this subject but could not confirm the numbers quoted.
