Home Health & Hospice Week

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is making good on its promise to urge physicians to enroll in the Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System before PECOS edits hit durable medical equipment and other Part B claims in 2011.

DME and other Part B providers had a near miss with thousands of returned claims due to the ordering physician not being enrolled in PECOS. CMS had slated the edits to begin April 5. Suppliers are worried the problem will occur all over again in January if CMS fails to give doctors an incentive for enrolling in PECOS (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIX, No. 9, p. 69).

CMS isn't handing down any penalties for not enrolling yet, but it has sent physicians a message reminding them of their reporting responsibilities under Medicare and offering pointers on how to enroll.

Tip: It's not enough for your ordering docs just to fill out the enrollment application online, CMS reminds. Enrolling physicians must print, sign, and date the certification statements and mail them and any supporting documentation to the appropriate Medicare contractor. "The Medicare contractor will not begin to process your enrollment application until it receives a signed and dated Certification Statement," CMS stresses.

However: You may want to lay off your PECOS registration drive until a planned system outage from March 29 to April 5 wraps up. The outage is due to scheduled maintenance, CMS says