You may or may not meet claim denials this month owing to PECOs edits, depending on which CMS announcement you read.
Background: Presently, if you submit claims for services or items ordered/referred and the ordering or referring physician's information is not in the MAC's claims system or in PECOS, your practice will get an informational message letting you know that the practitioner's information is not there in the system. Earlier, it was believed that CMS would start denying these claims on January 3: however now that's up in the air.
Last November, CMS distributed an email that the agency referred to as an 'Important Update on PECOS and Ordering/Referring', in which CMS noted, "While there are some rumors that the edits will be turned on this month, we want to emphasize that the agency has not announced any date as to when ordering /referring edits will be turned on.
In writing: Even though the agency now clearly denies ever announcing that claim rejections would begin on January 3, MLN Matters article MM6417, which CMS distributed on Feb. 26, 2010, stated "Effective January 3, 2011, if the ordering/ referring provider is not in PECOS, the carrier or Part B MAC will search its claims system for the ordering/referring provider. If the ordering/referring provider is not in PECOS and is not in the claims system, the claim will be rejected."
So which CMS statement to believe? At this juncture, the agency seems to be indicating that you may not face ordering/referring denials this month, despite the earlier MLN Matters article to the contrary. Your best choice is to ensure that you and your ordering/referring providers are in PECOS as soon as possible, just in case the MAC edits become a reality.
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