CMS Pub. 100-04, ch. 19, § 40.1.2

For those eligible practitioners already working in or for hospitals or freestanding

ambulatory care clinics, whether operated by the Indian Health Service (IHS) or by an

Indian tribe or tribal organization, enroll and process requests for reassignment of

benefits following the current individual practitioner enrollment and verification

instructions. For practitioners enrolling to work in or reassign benefits to hospitals or

freestanding ambulatory care clinics, whether operated by the IHS or by an Indian tribe

or tribal organization, it is necessary only to verify licensure in one State even if it is not

the State in which the practitioners practice. This only applies to federal employees and

does not apply if the practitioner/physician is enrolling to work in or to reassign to an

Indian tribe or tribal organization. For those disciplines that must be legally authorized to

perform services in a State, the practitioner must be legally authorized to perform the

services in at least one State, even if it is not the State where the practitioner practices

with the IHS. An exception to the reassignment rules was made for physical

therapist/occupational therapist, for details see §40.1.4, Reassignment.

For those practitioners who are already enrolled in Medicare Part B with the designated

A/B MAC (B), process requests to reassign benefits in accordance with current

instructions. All other physicians and practitioners must enroll in the Medicare program

with the designated A/B MAC (B).

For those individual practitioners who are employees of an IHS, tribe, or tribal facility

that provides offsite care to the IHS, tribe, or tribal Medicare Part B beneficiaries, the

facility can bill if the employee reassigns his right to payment. However, the IHS, tribe,

or tribal facility cannot bill for offsite services of a contract practitioner, unless the IHS,

tribe, or tribal facility owns or leases the space where that contract practitioner provides

the services.

However, when an IHS provider contracts with non-IHS physicians to perform

interpretations of radiological services, the physicians may be paid by the IHS facility

regardless of the location of the offsite practitioner, if services are contracted in

accordance with the requirements listed in §120 of this Chapter. See §120 in this Chapter

for further information.