The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will delay until January 3, 2011, the requirement of all Medicare-enrolled physicians to update their record in the Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS).

The delay will give physicians and non-physician practitioners who order items or services for Medicare beneficiaries or who refer Medicare beneficiaries to other Medicare providers or suppliers sufficient time to enroll in Medicare or take the action necessary to establish a current enrollment record in Medicare prior to the new deadline.

Although enrolled in Medicare, many physicians and non-physician practitioners who are eligible to order items or services or refer Medicare beneficiaries to other Medicare providers or suppliers for services do not have current enrollment records in Medicare. PECOS also contains the physician/non-physician practitioner's National Provider Identifier (NPI). As of January 3, 2011, a physician or non-physician practitioner who orders or refers and who does not have a current enrollment record that contains the NPI will cause the claim submitted by the Part B provider/supplier who furnished the ordered or referred item or service to be rejected.

CMS continues to urge physicians and non-physician practitioners who are enrolled in Medicare but who have not updated their Medicare enrollment record since November 2003 to update their enrollment record now. Even if there have been no changes since 2003, physicians and non-physician practitioners submit an initial enrollment application which will establish a current enrollment record in PECOS.

CMS has published on its website a file that contains the National Provider Identifier (NPI) and the name (last name, first name) of all physicians and non-physician practitioners who are of a type/specialty that is legally eligible to order and refer in the Medicare program and who have current enrollment records in Medicare (i.e., they have enrollment records in PECOS). This is a very large, downloadable pdf file containing approximately 800,000 records. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareProviderSupEnroll/Downloads/OrderingReferringReport.pdf

For more information on the Provider Enrollment System, visit: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareProviderSupEnroll/