$505 enrollment fee to hit diagnostic testing facilities

Independent diagnostic testing facilities are on the hook for the $505 enrollment fee that also affects durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, according to the CMS transmittal.

Remember: The fee was announced March 23 in Transmittal 371 to the Medicare Program Integrity Manual. According to the health care reform bill, the fee will be used to cover the cost of the program and to screen enrollment applications to curb fraud. The fee will be adjusted annually based on the consumer price index (CPI) as a means to keep up with inflation. CMS will notify providers of fee changes (PBN 05/09/11).

You and your peers may not feel fee’s effects now, but if you haven’t submitted a revalidation form in the past five years you will have to pay it this time around.

The fee will also come into play when you add a new practice location.

NOTE: This fee does not apply to physician practices that have diagnostic equipment in their offices, says Leslie Witkin, president of Physicians First in Orlando, Fla. Also, physicians, NPPs or groups that are not DME suppliers don’t have to pay the fee.

TIP: You can attempt to claim a hardship exemption, though CMS doesn’t offer much in the way of hard and fast rules on what qualifies, beyond that it’s a hardship if the fee represents a “significant burden for an adequately capitalized provider or supplier.