oandp.com

Dear Colleagues:



I participated in the Jurisdiction B teleconference on PECOS that was held
on December 10. It was a very interesting experience to say the least.



The majority of the participants were DME's and office support staff.



My question did manage to get answered.



The question was: "What happens should the referring source not register
with PECOS after the cut-off date in April? Can the claims be resubmitted
following the registration? Do we need an ABN? Will we have to eat the
cost of devices?"



Their answer was: the PECOS system will work the same as when NPI was
implemented.

Claims can be resubmitted because the PECOS system looks to the date of
registration, not date of service. You will have to submit claims after the
referral source is registered without penalty. No ABN needed unless it
falls under the criteria for ABN's.



Apparently, they are working on automatic registrations through the NPI
database.



We still will not have access to the database in the foreseeable future.



One person asked why the providers of DMEPOS are stuck with this situation
when it is the referral sources have to make the effort to register. Their
reply was "that is how CMS decided to implement it. We don't make the
rules, we just have to enforce them."



A transcript of this conference is to be available on the NGSMedicare
website in "a few weeks."



The conference was well organized and everyone who got to ask a question got
an answer or were asked for a phone number so that they could talk off the
conference line. I would recommend this type of forum, if you can spare the
90 minutes. If it is an important issue, making the time is indicated.



Dean Mason, C. Ped, BOCO, CO