CMS Regulatory Changes to Provider's Banking Relationships and Access To PECOS Changed as of Thursday April 2, 2009... A recent CMS transmittal was about to force all providers to use a local bank for receipt of the provider's Medicare funds. This would have been catastrophic for most practices since the intricacies in the banking establishment within the 855B are very particular and timely to change. These banking changes would cease all Medicare cash flow to a practice until the new banking relationship could be established. After pressure from various healthcare professional groups, such as MGMA -Medical Group Managers Association- and its membership, this item within this transmittal regarding a provider's banking relationship was rescinded and replaced with the following transmittal www.cms.hhs.gov/Transmittals/2009Trans/list.asp. Transmittal R288PI or CR 6310

On an unrelated issue but of equally great importance was the provision in CMS regulations that prohibited anyone other than the provider from accessing the CMS Provider Enrollment Chain and Ownership system or otherwise referred to as the PECOS online system. This restriction forced all Medicare provider enrollment and enrollment changes from remaining in a cumbersome and very slow paper document process unless the provider themselves input the information and accessed PECOs. Clearly this was the result of a bureaucracy setting policy without understanding the actuality of the process. As a result of pressure from providers and professional associations, CMS has lifted this restriction and individuals other than the providers themselves are now allowed to access PECOS on a provider's behalf. PECOS may well be a break through in the Medicare enrollment process but not in the hands of the providers, those individuals that work with these provider enrollment documents and participate daily in the current slow and cumbersome process are the ones to reap the benefits of the system and thus the providers themselves will reap these same benefits. The following link is to this new CMS policy regarding access to PECOS http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareProviderSupEnroll/02_Internet-basedPECOS.asp#TopOfPage