Rather than incorporating its reassignment policy guidance into Chapter 15 of the Medicare Program Integrity Manual, which contains other Medicare enrollment policies, CMS placed this guidance into a new Chapter 15.5.
In addition to reassignment guidance, important guidance to facilitate getting a new group enrolled includes:
- When a new group is enrolling, CMS is encouraging (but not requiring) its enrollment contractors to assign all forms (e.g., the CMS 855B, CMS 855I and CMS 855R) to one staff member to handle.
- CMS instructs when the enrollment staff must develop for missing forms, rather than rejecting the application as incomplete.
- Generally, enrollment forms are to be complete; however, CMS identified certain data fields where information from a cover letter or the supporting documents can be used in lieu of developing for an updated, complete form.
Pay attention to this guidance when enrolling a new group or adding a new member to an existing group to avoid having to resubmit an application and, thus, getting a later effective date.