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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid, contracts with four companies, known as Durable Medical Equipment Regional Carriers, or DMERDs, to process Medicare DME claims. Each DMERC handles a specific geographic region of the country. DMERCs also provide information and assistance to providers, suppliers and people with Medicare who have questions about DME coverage. (To find the DMERC for your state, see the chart at the bottom of the page. When Does Medicare Pay for Durable Medical Equipment? The entire class of DME items includes prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (sometimes abbreviated as DMEPOS), giving us these three major three DME categories • Durable medical equipment, or DME • Prosthetics and orthotics • Supplies In this brief, we will refer to all of these items as DME. Medicare pays for DME if your clients require the assistance or use of the equipment to function at their best and their physician orders it. The equipment itself must meet certain requirements for Medicare coverage. It must be: • Able to withstand repeated use |