The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a new regulation regarding the verification of legal status of foreign-born healthcare professionals. CMS provides the following summary of the rule:
"If a newly-enrolling physician or non-physician practitioner indicates in Section 2 of his/her Medicare enrollment application (CMS-855I or Internet-based PECOS) that he/she was born in a foreign country, the contractor shall verify that the physician or non-physician practitioner is: (1) a United States citizen; (2) a legal resident of the United States, or (3) otherwise legally authorized to work in the United States. The purpose of this change request is to help ensure that all enrolling physicians and non-physician practitioners are legally authorized to perform Medicare services."
The regulation will be implemented and ruled effective on March 29, 2010.
CMS announcement of the new regulation can be found here:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/MM6748.pdf
