PECOS Edits Delayed until 2011!
On an Open Door Forum call held at 2:00pm EST today, CMS announced that they will be delaying implementation of the PECOS edits until January 3, 2011. This buys additional time for DME suppliers who were scrambling to get physicians enrolled by the previous April 5th deadline.
An update to change requests 6417 and 6421 is expected to be released in the near future. In the meantime, suppliers will continue to receive warning messages on their GenResponse reports and should continue their efforts to get physicians enrolled. Remember, this is not the death of PECOS, only a delay.
To assist providers in their quest to get physicians enrolled in PECOS, the Part B MACs will be sending revalidation letters to all physicians who have not updated their Medicare enrollment in over 6 years. (Medicare contractors first began updating the PECOS database with physician enrollments in November of 2003; therefore, physicians enrolled prior to this date will not be in the database.) Physicians enrolled in Medicare for more than six years who have made no updates to their status will receive a request for revalidation from their MAC. The letter will instruct the physician to submit either an updated paper enrollment form or to enroll online via PECOS.
According to CMS, DME suppliers will also be given access to PECOS later this year. That means suppliers will soon have the option of enrolling in Medicare or updating their information online.
On a final note, suppliers should be aware that Medicare contractors are currently conducting an increased number of on-site reviews. While CMS did not give specific reasons for the reviews, they did say that contractors are in the process of performing heavy licensure and accreditation checks. If you need to make a change to your state licensure or accreditation status, you should notify your contractor as soon as possible.
Tags: PECOS, PECOS Database, PECOS DME, PECOS physician enrollment, PECOS warnings