Practice staff will have a legal way to complete physician enrollment using the Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS) as CMS rolled out its long-awaited surrogate program for use by the end of August.
 
“We’ve been waiting for this forever,” says PECOS expert David Zetter of Zetter Healthcare Management Consultants in Mechanicsburg, Pa. Zetter attended an Aug. 7 meeting of PECOS super-users where CMS discussed its plans.
 
Part B News readers received a breaking news alert Aug. 7 – a day before CMS announced the program in its Aug. 8 MLN Connects Provider eNews (PDF).
 
The surrogate program will legalize a now noncompliant but common practice of nonphysician staff using providers’ usernames and passwords to enroll in PECOS.
 
Surrogates will have to register to receive their own usernames and passwords then request that providers grant them access to their information, Zetter says CMS told enrollment experts. The process is similar to how Facebook users send friend requests and can’t see personal information until the friend accepts, he explains.
 
The provider will receive two emails – one with a link and one with a PIN number – and must log in to approve or deny the pending surrogate, Zetter says.
 
Then surrogates can access PECOS or electronic health records (EHR) registration and attestation, he says. They will be able to access the National Plan & Provider Enumeration System in the future.
 
Keep your eyes on Part B News for more on the PECOS surrogate program.
 
And to get firsthand guidance about the surrogate program, come to this fall’s National Medicare Provider Enrollment Summit 2013. This two-and-a-half-day workshop guides you through every step of the enrollment process and will include live assistance on your PECOS records from CMS representatives on site.