On July 16, 2012 Medicare will no longer revoke Medicare billing privileges if a provider fails to respond to a Medicare  request for additional information.  42 CFR 424.535 allows Medicare to revoke a provider’s billing privileges if , among other things, the provider failed to respond to a request for enrollment information from Medicare.  Beginning in 2008 revocation resulted in a minimum re-enrollment bar of one year.  As a result, a provider could face revocation and an inability to re-enroll in Medicare for at least a year merely for failing to provide Medicare with a simple piece of information – bank information, a corrected address, verification of license or similar information. Fortunately, Medicare administrative contractors often allowed providers to correct such deficiencies through a corrective action plan.  Nonetheless it could be disconcerting to get a revocation notice, and, if a provider failed to respond to the notice, revocation would be effective. With the rule change effective July 16, 2012, providers will no longer face such an onerous sanction if revocation is based only on a failure to provide requested information – including revalidation requests. Providers may experience deactivation in these situations, but deactivation does not terminate Medicare participation agreements or bar a provider from participation, and may be resolved by supplying the requested information.  Importantly, the rule change is not retroactive, so any providers that have already received a notice of revocation may need to use the corrective action plan or reconsideration processes to avoid a final revocation. But, going forward, this change should be an improvement – especially with the current revalidation effort underway by Medicare.