Getting enrolled in Medicare is one milestone. Staying enrolled is a recurring one. Every Medicare provider and supplier has to revalidate, which means resubmitting and recertifying the information on their enrollment record on a regular cycle. Miss it, and Medicare can deactivate your billing privileges.
Revalidation is not hard because the forms are long. It is hard because it comes around every few years, long after the person who did the original enrollment has moved on, and because the details on file have usually changed in the meantime. This guide explains how the cycle works and where practices get caught.
What revalidation is
Revalidation is Medicare's way of confirming that everything on your enrollment is still true: who you are, where you practice, who owns the organization, who you reassign benefits to and where payments go. It uses the same CMS-855 application you used to enroll (the 855A, 855B, 855I or 855S, depending on what kind of provider you are). If you need a refresher on which form is yours, our CMS-855 form guide lays them out.
How often you revalidate
According to CMS, providers and suppliers generally revalidate every five years, while DMEPOS suppliers revalidate every three years. CMS also reserves the right to request an off-cycle revalidation at any time, so the five-year rhythm is a default rather than a guarantee.
How to find your due date
CMS publishes revalidation due dates in its Medicare Revalidation List, which you can search by NPI. A few things about it are worth knowing:
- CMS posts due dates about seven months in advance. If your record shows "TBD," you do not have a due date yet.
- Your Medicare contractor sends a revalidation notice by email or mail ahead of the due date. CMS is clear that you are still responsible for tracking the date even if the notice never reaches you.
- Notices go to the contact information on your enrollment record. If that email belongs to a former office manager, the notice goes nowhere useful.
When to file, and when not to
CMS gives two simple rules. Do revalidate if you are within three months of your due date, even if you have not received a notice. Do not revalidate if your due date is more than seven months away, unless you have received a notice asking you to. Unsolicited early revalidations are returned, which wastes time and does nothing to protect you.
Groups need to plan for something else as well: when a group revalidates, its application needs to reflect the practitioners currently reassigning benefits to it, and when an individual revalidates, the 855I needs to list all active reassignments. A practice with turnover since its last cycle almost always has cleanup to do first.
What happens if you miss it
If a revalidation is not submitted, or a development request is not answered, Medicare can deactivate your billing privileges. Deactivation stops payment for services, and getting reactivated means submitting a complete application and waiting for it to be processed again. Your reactivation effective date is set by Medicare, so time spent deactivated can turn into services you cannot bill. Preventing a lapse is far easier than fixing one.
The mistakes we see most
Treating it as a formality
Revalidation is a full review of your enrollment. If your ownership, managing employees, locations or banking have changed and were never reported, the revalidation is where those gaps surface.
Stale contact information
Both the revalidation notice and any request for more information go to the contacts on file. Updating contacts well before your cycle is one of the most valuable small things a practice can do.
Missing or outdated reassignments
Practitioners who left the group years ago, or new hires who were never linked, create inconsistencies that need to be resolved. For more on how reassignment now works, see our 855R and reassignment guide.
Filing too early or on the wrong form
An early unsolicited filing is returned, and an outdated paper form version can be returned as well. Both cost you time inside your window.
Not responding within the deadline
Under CMS rules, if the contractor requests missing information, the clock to respond is 30 calendar days from the request, and a follow-up request does not restart it. Our article on common rejection reasons explains why that matters.
Medicaid has its own cycle
State Medicaid programs run separate revalidation schedules. In Texas, that means TMHP and PEMS, which we cover in our TMHP PEMS walkthrough. A practice enrolled in both programs has two calendars to keep, and they rarely line up.
How Maverick handles revalidation
We put every provider's Medicare and Medicaid revalidation dates on our tracking calendar, check the CMS list on a set schedule, and start preparing once a due date posts. We review your current record against what is actually true today, clean up locations, contacts and reassignments, prepare the revalidation, and submit once your file is complete. Then we follow up with the contractor, handle any development requests and keep you updated until it is approved.
Learn more on our Medicare and Medicaid enrollment service page.
Sources: CMS, Revalidations (Renewing Your Enrollment), CMS.gov; CMS Medicare Revalidation List (data.cms.gov); 42 CFR 424.515 and 424.525; CMS-855I Medicare Enrollment Application. Verified October 2026.