It’s currently a violation of CMS policy for non-physician staff to use a physician’s username and password to update the physician’s information in the Provider Enrollment Chain Ownership System (PECOS). But it’s widely believed to be happening, and CMS is set to change its policy as soon as next month to make it okay to do so.
Being caught unprepared for Medicare enrollment is one fast way for a practice to lose thousands of dollars. That’s why DecisionHealth is repeating its Medicare Enrollment Summit in Washington, D.C. Oct. 3-5. Hear directly from top CMS officials.
In the meantime, here are some options you can use for what are known as surrogate enrollment arrangements:
1. New use registration – new provider organization with a new authorized official. These steps must be completed by an authorized official (AO) – an owner, shareholder, director or any practice official who can sign off on 855 forms. Note: When a screen pops up asking whether you are registering as an individual provider, the AO selects "no."
2. Authorized provider adds an employer. In this scenario, the AO accepts any pending connections from providers or surrogates, adding employers and setting up new staff users, who are known in the surrogate program as delegated officials.
3. New individual provider registers and then authorizes a surrogate. The provider has to log in and authorize any surrogate requests while also specifying which business functions the surrogate is authorized to perform. Note: When the program is first launched, only EHR and PECOS will appear as business function options.