It had been anticipated that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would update its Form 855 enrollment applications this year to require Medicare providers and suppliers to disclose their various 'affiliations' as described in a September 2019 final rule.  CMS believes such disclosures will allow the agency to better track current and past relationships between and among different providers and suppliers.

CMS now says that in light of the pandemic and various other factors,  the agency will not begin updating its Form CMS-855 applications with affiliation disclosure sections for at least another 12 months. 

The attached CMS’ MLN Matters article provides additional information on this update.