When revalidating through the electronic provider enrollment chain and ownership system (PECOS), you are highly encouraged to print a paper copy of your reenrollment application for your records. However, if you tried to do this recently, you may have noticed that not all of the information you entered into PECOS successfully printed. In fact, the form that prints may look somewhat different than the CMS-855S you are accustomed to seeing.

We have confirmed with CMS that there is a glitch in the PECOS system that occurs when suppliers try to print paper copies of their electronic reenrollment applications. Suppliers should note that this does NOT impact the information that is sent to the NSC. The information you enter into PECOS will still be successfully transmitted to the NSC, once your electronic application is submitted.

On one of the last screens displayed in the PECOS revalidation process, suppliers are given the opportunity to view and print a copy of the completed application. Clicking the print link should produce a prepopulated paper copy of the CMS-855S form that you may keep for your records. However, as of May 1, 2012, a glitch in the system is resulting in applications printing with incomplete fields and missing information. As previously mentioned, while this does create a bit of a headache for suppliers trying to print hard copies, if you can see the information in PECOS and everything looks correct online, it is safe to submit your electronic application to the NSC.

After a little digging, MiraVista was able to confirm that the glitch is the result of PECOS trying to print information to a new, draft version of the CMS-855S form that has not yet been released. You can identify whether PECOS incorrectly printed the draft copy of the CMS-855S by looking for an 04/12 revision date in the lower left-hand corner of each page. This version of the CMS-855S is not yet active, and it is our understanding that PECOS is not set to populate the revised fields in this form.

The active version of the CMS-855S form that should be linked to in PECOS (and that suppliers should use if they opt to submit a paper application) was last updated on July 2011 and can be identified by an 07/11 revision date in the lower left-hand corner of each page. This is the form PECOS is set to populate when printing hard copies of electronic revalidation applications.

We have informed CMS of the issue and have received confirmation that they are looking into a fix. A date has not yet been released for the implementation of the 04/12 draft version of the CMS-855S form. Look for full details on revisions made to the draft form in the June 2012 issue of Vista Notes.