You may have heard that CMS recently expanded its authority to deny enrollment and revoke the Medicare billing privileges of providers and suppliers.  The new changes could affect any physician, group practice or other Medicare provider or supplier.  As the changes are wide reaching, all Medicare providers and suppliers, and anyone providing support services for such providers or suppliers (such as billing companies or administrative staff), should be knowledgeable about CMS’ expanded authority.

Some important changes include:

  • CMS may deny the enrollment of a new provider or supplier if one of its owners previously owned a Medicare billing entity that (1) has had its billing privileges terminated or revoked, and (2) continues to have overpayments or other Medicare debt.
  • CMS may deny the enrollment, or revoke the billing privileges, of a provider or supplier if the provider/supplier, or an owner or managing employee of the provider or supplier, has been convicted within the last 10 years of any state or federal felony which CMS determines is detrimental to the best interests of the Medicare program and its beneficiaries.
  • CMS may revoke the billing privileges of any provider or supplier which CMS determines has engaged in a “pattern or practice of billing for services that do not meet Medicare requirements”.

I co-authored two articles on the new regulations that provide providers and suppliers (as well as billing companies) with what they need to know about the important changes.  One of the articles was the Cover Article for the May/June 2015 Issue of BC Advantage Magazine (available in print and accessible online for those individuals having a login to the BC Advantage website at: http://www.billing-coding.com/detail_article.cfm?ArticleID=5310).

The other article was published in Physicians News Digest (accessible to the public online at the following link:  http://physiciansnews.com/2015/04/16/physicians-beware-cms-may-deny-or-revoke-medicare-provider-privileges/).

The new regulations took effect on February 3, 2015.