Home Health & Hospice Week

Tip: Failing to send in your CHOW information ASAP could haunt you.

CMS and its contractors are ramping up the effort to revalidate providers' Medicare enrollment.

Home health agencies need to wait until they receive a revalidation request before submitting their update, HHH Medicare Administrative Con-tractor Palmetto GBA says in a question-and-an-swer set on its website. But they should not wait to submit updates to their Medicare information, such as change in ownership (CHOW) info.

Plus: HHAs won't have to undergo another survey or submit capitalization documentation with the revalidation, Palmetto clarifies in the Q&As.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wants you to use the Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System to submit your revalidation information, it says in a message to pro-viders. "We have already streamlined the application process with fewer screens and new helpful prompts to let you know if information is incomplete," the agency says. "Once enrolled in PECOS, you can review your existing information online, make changes, and submit the revalidated application without having to complete the entire application. You are also able to pay the application fee (if applicable) during the online submission process."

CMS plans more improvements to the PECOS system this year, including simplifying the registration process for authorized representatives and offering digital document upload for supporting documentation, the agency says.

Reminder: All providers except physicians, non-physicians practitioners, physician group practices and non-physician practitioner group practices must submit the application fee with their revalidation or other enrollment actions, CMS says in a separate revalidation message to providers. Providers not using PECOS can pay the fee at https://pecos. cms.hhs.gov/pecos/feePaymentWelcome.do.

Tip: "Please make sure when you Revali-date via Internet-Based PECOS that you go through each and every topic, review the information listed, and add or update any information that has changed or is missing," HHH MAC NHIC says in a message to providers. "This will ensure the most accurate information for our records."

If you don't see "Revalidation" as an option when selecting your enrollment in PECOS, you need to choose the "New Application" or "Reactivation" options, depending on which applies, NHIC instructs.

Do this: "Always enclose a copy of the Revalidation Letter that you received when you send in your certification(s) and additional information pages," NHIC says. "This will ensure accurate and timely processing of your revalidation."

Resource: CMS will post a recording and transcript of its Oct. 27 provider call, "Revalidation of Medicare Provider Enrollment," after the call, it says. At press time the call had a "large registration" and CMS officials planned to answer questions submitted via e-mail by participants.