The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that it will delay the Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) requirements until January 3, 2011.
CMS communicated the decision in a special Open Door Forum held February 17, stating that it believes the delay will provide enough time for providers to enroll or establish current enrollment records in PECOS. The program has already been delayed once, from its original date of December 31, 2009, to April 5, 2010.
For those providers who are already enrolled in the Medicare program, it is recommended that they check that their information in PECOS is current, the agency said. CMS has made the names and national provider identifiers (NPIs) of the Medicare physicians and nonphysician practitioners who are eligible to order or refer in the Medicare program publicly available on its Web site.
Medicare providers can either use the Internet-based PECOS system or fill out a paper enrollment application, CMS said. The agency plans to issue a Medicare Learning Network (MLN) article to further educate providers about the enrollment requirement.
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