Railroad Medicare Provider Enrollment: Temporary Provisional Medicare Billing Privileges Due to COVID-19

A temporary Palmetto GBA Railroad Medicare Provider Enrollment hotline has been established to assist with temporary provisional enrollment. A hotline representative can be reached at 888—882—7931, Option 1, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET.

What does this mean to you?
This feature allows physicians and nonphysician practitioners to initiate temporary provisional Medicare billing privileges via telephone and address questions regarding provider enrollment flexibilities afforded by the COVID-19 waiver.

Effective immediately, we will also accept enrollments via the hotline from providers attempting to enroll as mass immunizers or as other Medicare enrollment eligible provider types for the purpose of administering the COVID-19 vaccines. Information on enrolling to bill COVID-19 vaccines can be found on the CMS COVID-19 Enrollment page.

Application Process
You must have completed a temporary provisional enrollment with your local Medicare Administrative Contactor (MAC), and must have seen or plan on seeing a Railroad Medicare patient.

We will assign a PTAN/Billing number and the effective date will be the same effective date of your local Medicare. A temporary billing approval letter will also be sent to you with your PTAN.

CMS released Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Medicare Provider Enrollment Relief related to COVID-19 including the toll-free hotlines available to provide expedited enrollment with the local MACs and answer questions related to COVID-19 enrollment requirements.  

A copy of the FAQs can be found on the CMS website (PDF, 179 KB).  

Please continue to call the Provider Contact Center at  888—355—9165, Option 3 for all other Provider Enrollment inquiries.