CMS provided notice of the expansion of its Accelerated and Advanced Payment Program for qualifying Medicare participating providers to ensure liquidity throughout the COVID-19 crisis. The Program enables qualifying Medicare providers to receive an advance worth 3 months of average billings.
CMS anticipates that advance payments will be issued to qualifying providers within 7 days of approving the provider’s request. Repayment of these Accelerated/Advance Payments to CMS begins 120 days from the receipt of the Accelerated/Advance Payment, and and full repayment is to be done within 210 days.
To qualify for accelerated or advance payments, the provider must:
- Have billed Medicare for claims within 180 days immediately prior to the date of signature on the provider’s request form;
- Not be in bankruptcy;
- Not be under active medical review or program integrity investigation; and
- Not have any outstanding delinquent Medicare overpayments.
Medicare will start accepting and processing the Accelerated/Advance Payment applications and approved requests immediately. Most providers will be able to request up to 100% of the Medicare payment amount for a three-month period.
Accelerated/Advance Payment Request forms can be found on each individual MAC’s website and can be submitted electronically, by fax, email or mail. CMS has established COVID-19 hotlines at each MAC that are operational Monday-Friday to assist with accelerated payment requests.
View the CMS press release here and fact sheet here.
