American Academy of Family Physicians
About UsNews & PublicationsMembersCME CenterClinical & ResearchPractice MgmtPolicy & AdvocacyCareers

CMS to Physicians

Report Enrollment Changes Promptly to Avoid Medicare Payment Delays

By News Staff
10/1/2008

Here's a reminder from CMS to family physicians participating in Medicare: Physicians are responsible for reporting changes in their Medicare enrollment information to their designated Medicare contractors.

Managing Your Practice
It's important that physicians comply because, according to CMS, unreported changes can affect claims processing and delay Medicare payments owed to physicians.

CMS has posted three new fact sheets on its Web site to clarify the types of changes that must be reported via CMS form 8551 within 90 days of a change. Examples include:
  • changes in legal business name or tax identification number,
  • practice location changes, or
  • changes in adverse legal actions.
One CMS fact sheet pertains to physician group practices (2-page PDF; About PDFs) enrolled in Medicare, another to individual physicians (2-page PDF; About PDFs), and a third to nonphysician providers (2-page PDF; About PDFs).

CMS advises physicians to contact their Medicare contractors directly with questions about reporting changes.

Questions about Medicare enrollment are covered in the enrollment area of CMS' Web site.