Surrogate PECOS program allows you to ‘officially’ aid with provider enrollment
January 3rd, 2014 - Scott KraftCategories: Enrollment
One of the biggest frustrations practices have had with enrolling providers under Medicare’s Provider Chain Enrollment Ownership System – PECOS for short – is the requirement that the providers personally enter much of the data needed to enroll or revalidate enrollment information.
Now that’s changed. As of Oct. 7, CMS has deployed a “surrogate” program allowing providers and practices to delegate enrollment and revalidation functions to members of the staff.
To get started, any employee of the group practice can enroll in the PECOS I&A system (https://pecos.cms.hhs.gov/pecos/PecosIAConfirm.do?transferReason=CreateLogin).
Enrollment requires the user to have a unique email address and password, which will then be confirmed by the system sending an email to that address.
In addition, identification of each person seeking access through the system will be validated in a manner similar to how a credit bureau might validate information about someone. Expect to be asked a series of specific, personal questions such as whether you had a specific car loan or mortgage at a specific period of time.
The applicant would also send a paper application for CMS to review, a process expected to take 2-3 weeks in total. If an applicant is denied, he or she may reapply immediately.
One approved, the applicant who wishes to act as a surrogate and the provider who wishes to deploy a surrogate would connect in a way that is a little similar to how friends are made on Facebook.
The surrogate would send a request for access to the provider, who would then need to log into PECOS and approve the request. No email would be sent to prompt the provider, so it’s important that the provider be reminded that action is needed. Once permission is granted, it is effective in real time.
Note that the surrogate would gain access to the provider’s entire record in PECOS. The provider may also grant access to his or her record for the Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program and the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES). The NPPES access would not take effect immediately as the system is not yet ready, according to CMS.
Remember, the approval is for each of the three systems and the provider is not able to restrict subsets of information within each of those systems. It’s all or nothing. You must also remember that, if an employee leaves your organization who is authorized to act as a surrogate, each provider must log into the I&A system and revoke the surrogate authorization immediately.
The revocation will also be done in real time and take effect immediately. But you’ll be exposed until such time as it is done, so be sure to add it to your employee exit interview or exit process.
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