Proof of Delivery - Requirements for Signature and Date - JA DME

Auto-filling the date of delivery on delivery documentation or Proof of Delivery (POD) is a common business practice for many DMEPOS suppliers. Upon delivery, the Medicare beneficiary or designee is required to review the POD and must provide his or her signature, which signifies knowledge, approval and acceptance of the delivery. The Program Integrity Manual (PIM) chapter 4, section 4.26.1 "Proof of Delivery and Delivery Methods" does not state who may enter the date of delivery, but indicates that the date of signature must be the date in which the item was actually delivered. According to the PIM "….the date of signature on the delivery slip must be the date that the DMEPOS item was received by the beneficiary or designee…." If the delivery documentation is signed by the beneficiary's designee, the PIM also recommends noting the relationship of the designee to the beneficiary on the document.

Based on these instructions, the POD delivery date element is not required to be personally filled in by the beneficiary/designee. The date of delivery may be entered by the beneficiary, designee or the supplier. The date entered must be the actual date of delivery.

In the event that the supplier's delivery documents have both a supplier entered date and the beneficiary or designee signature date on the POD document, the beneficiary/designee entered date is considered to be the delivery date and thus the date of service.