Medicare Revalidation Deadline Set for March 2013

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced that health centers will need to revalidate their enrollment before March 2013. Revalidation refers to the process of submitting a new enrollment application and certifying to its accuracy as a means of maintaining an up-to-date enrollment file.

This new revalidation timeline is the result of CMS’ implementation of the new enrollment requirements under the Affordable Care Act. Therefore, revalidation will not be requested of health centers that enrolled in Medicare after March 25, 2011, when the new requirements became effective.

Medicare contractors will be issuing notifications of the need to revalidate between now and March 2013. This means that some health centers will be required to revalidate outside of their regular revalidation cycle. Health centers should not submit revalidations until they are requested to do so by their Medicare contractor. Additionally, revalidation will need to be completed for each permanent health center site. However, Medicare contractors’ requests for revalidations of each of a health center’s permanent sites may not necessarily occur at the same time.

Once a health center receives notification to revalidate, it must submit the appropriate enrollment materials within 60 days. Failure to revalidate enrollment may result in the loss of Medicare billing privileges and a bar to re-enrollment for a period of at least one year.

Health Center billing staff should be aware of this process and ensure that all correspondence from Medicare contractors is timely reviewed and addressed. If your health center has any questions about this process, please schedule a Compliance Program Telephone Consultation.