Medicare Reassignment After CMS-855R: What Changed and How to Track It

Retire the standalone CMS-855R from paper-based SOPs

CMS has discontinued the CMS-855R for reassignment reporting and moved that information into CMS-855I.

The reassignment permits an eligible organization or group to bill and receive payment for covered Part B services rendered by the practitioner.

Practitioners can add, change, or terminate reassignments through the current 855I/PECOS workflow.

Search the practice’s SOPs, onboarding packets, checklist templates, and training slides for 855R references. Replace instructions that tell staff to download or mail a standalone 855R with current CMS-855I/PECOS directions. Keep a short change note explaining that CMS consolidated the form rather than telling staff “855R no longer matters” without context. The concept of reassignment still matters for claims and payment. This wording prevents a second error in which staff remove the old form and also stop tracking the practitioner-to-group relationship entirely.

Map the practitioner and receiving organization before opening the reassignment

One practitioner can have more than one reassignment relationship when the facts support it.

The individual enrollment and the reassignment relationship should each be tracked to completion.

A form change is easy to miss because the business event did not change. The practice still manages reassignment; only the reporting path moved.

Before filing, identify the individual practitioner, Type 1 NPI, Medicare enrollment status, receiving organization, Type 2 NPI where applicable, TIN, group Medicare enrollment, and intended effective relationship. Confirm the clinician really will furnish services for the organization and that the receiving entity is the one expected to bill and receive payment. If the practitioner already works through another group, do not assume that relationship must end. Multiple reassignments can be legitimate when the underlying work relationships are legitimate.

Use current CMS-855I or PECOS functionality to establish the relationship

Use PECOS for the current electronic reassignment workflow or the current CMS-855I paper sections when paper submission is necessary. Do not copy data from an old 855R without verifying current practitioner and group information. Save the submission reference and clearly label the transaction as a reassignment so it is not lost among individual enrollment changes. If the current 2026 CMS-855B group workflow is involved in a group-initiated reassignment change, follow the current form/PECOS instructions rather than a historical division of work between 855B and 855R.

Record effective and termination dates as relationship history, not simple status

Using an obsolete paper SOP and sending the wrong form. The problem is not merely cosmetic: a mismatch can change which transaction is reviewed or where the request is routed.

Closing a clinician’s old reassignment too early or forgetting to terminate it when employment ends. This tends to surface later, when billing or scheduling discovers that a supposedly completed file still has an unresolved dependency.

Assuming a new group relationship overwrites all older relationships. A brief second-person check before submission is usually faster than answering a development request after the fact.

Recording the group approval date but not the reassignment effective date. When this happens, correct the source record first and then update the downstream copies that are actually affected.

A reassignment is a dated relationship. Keep start/effective information, termination date when applicable, and evidence of the contractor action. Do not overwrite an old group with the new group in a single “assigned to” field. Historical claims may need to be analyzed using the relationship that existed on the date of service. When a clinician leaves, coordinate the termination date with HR and billing rather than using the date the coordinator happens to submit the termination. Preserve the old relationship as inactive history.

Keep multiple legitimate reassignments visible instead of deleting them casually

Legacy sop version: Store it with the transaction rather than in a personal downloads folder or one coordinator’s inbox.

Current reassignment roster: Tie the document to the specific field or decision it supports.

Clinician and group enrollment identifiers: Record where it came from and when someone verified it.

Submission receipts: Preserve the prior version when an effective-date sequence could matter in a later review.

Approval/termination letters: Keep the current version and enough history to show when it changed.

Clinicians may work for two practices, moonlight, or maintain separate group relationships. The presence of another reassignment in PECOS therefore calls for a fact check, not an automatic cleanup target. Ask whether the provider still furnishes services through that organization and whether the dates overlap legitimately. Terminating a valid relationship can create claim problems for the other practice and may require rework. The tracker should be capable of showing more than one active group relationship for the same practitioner.

Audit legacy forms, trackers, and billing setup after the process change

After updating the SOP, review operational systems that may still be built around the old form. A tracker column named “855R sent” should become a relationship status with transaction reference and effective date. Billing configuration should identify the group relationship, not a form number. Training for new staff should explain the three-part model: practitioner enrollment, organization enrollment, reassignment. That model survives future form changes because it describes the Medicare relationship rather than the paperwork used to create it. Before retiring an old checklist, compare it with at least one recently processed reassignment so staff understand how the new transaction appears in PECOS and in the MAC response. Record where the organization can see the relationship after approval and which evidence billing should retain. That concrete example is more useful than changing only the form number in a procedure manual.

Operational checklist

• Retire any internal template that still routes reassignment work to CMS-855R.
• Verify the practitioner’s active enrollment and the receiving entity’s enrollment.
• Document each reassignment that should be added, changed, or terminated.
• Use PECOS or the current 855I sections for the transaction.
• Capture signatures and the eventual effective date.
• Reconcile reassignment records when a clinician joins, leaves, or works across multiple entities.

Sources reviewed