Things are bound to change in your business and updating us with those changes may not be at the forefront of your mind. However, some things need to be communicated in a timely manner, especially when they could cause major headaches later. Your facility’s accreditation information should be one of those things. If you’ve made changes at your practice, it is important to inform both ABC and third party payers, including Medicare.

We often discover these changes only after Medicare has received the information from a facility and notices a discrepancy in the Medicare report we provided them. Here are some common changes that often go unreported:

• Locations moves
• Affiliate location additions
• Service changes (adding or removing a product category)
• New or updated identification numbers (i.e. a new facility doesn’t yet have a Medicare number when applying to ABC for accreditation, but once they receive a PTAN, they forget to inform ABC).

So why is this a big deal? Here are three main reasons:

1. If you don’t notify ABC within 30 days of the effective date of a change, we cannot continue to report your information correctly to Medicare or accurately display your information in our directory.
2. Any information we report that doesn’t match up with what Medicare has on file for your facility can delay the processing of your revalidation or initial application to Medicare, delay claims processing or send a red flag to Medicare.
3. Patient and other third parties use our directory as a way to verify whether your facility’s accreditation is in good standing. If your information is incorrect, you can’t be verified.

Don’t procrastinate!

Some changes, such as a location move, require that you submit a new application while others, like updating an ID number or removing a product category, can simply be emailed to accreditation@abcop.org. In order to avoid some major confusion and/or delays, just get into the habit of updating BOTH Medicare and ABC with your new information at the same time.

We are here for you not only to make sure your patients are receiving quality care but that your business is running smoothly. Keeping us informed will help make that happen and reduce your chance of encountering any unnecessary upset! Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.