Home Health & Hospice Week

Keep up the campaign to get your ordering physicians registered. The looming PECOS edits may still cause you major headaches, but at least those problems are more than half a year away now. Background: Starting April 5, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had planned to edit durable medical equipment and other Part B claims for the ordering or referring physician's National Provider Identifier. The edit would check whether the physician's NPI was in the Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS). The claims system currently has an informational edit on the topic, but starting next month the edit would have begun rejecting claims. Now: After an avalanche of complaints from suppliers, physicians, and other providers,  CMS has put off that date until next year. During a Feb. 17 special Open Door Forum on enrollment, CMS's Jim Bossenmeyer announced the postponement. Repeating the information twice because of its [...]