Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Payments and Change of Ownership (CHOW)

In a CHOW, we will continue to pay the old owner until we receive the tie-in approval notice from the Regional Office (RO). Hence, any application from the old or new owner to change the EFT account or special payment address to that of the new owner shall be rejected. It is the responsibility of the old and new owners to work out any payment arrangements between themselves while the contractor and RO are processing the CHOW.

In a CHOW, the existing provider agreement is automatically assigned to the buyer or transferee:

• If the buyer or transferee does not explicitly reject automatic assignment before the transfer date, the provider agreement is automatically assigned, along with the correspondence control number (CCN), effective on the transfer date. The assigned agreement is subject to all applicable statutes and regulations and to the terms and condition under which it was originally issued. Among other things, this means that the contractor will continue to adjust payments to the provider to account for prior overpayment and underpayments, even if they relate to services provided before the sale or transfer.
• If the buyer rejects assignment of the provider agreement, the buyer must file an initial application to participate in the Medicare program. In this situation, Medicare will never pay the applicant for services the prospective provides before the date on which the provider qualifies for Medicare participation as an initial applicant.

Depending on the terms of the sale, the buyer or transferee may obtain a new NPI or maintain the existing NPI. After CHOW processing is complete, the seller or transferor will no longer be allowed to bill for services (i.e., services furnished after CHOW processing is complete) and only the buyer is permitted to submit claims using the existing CCN. It is ultimately the responsibility of the old and new owners to work out between themselves any payment arrangements for claims for services furnished during the CHOW processing period.