Guide

855R: pointing your Medicare payments at your own PLLC

Summary

The CMS-855R reassigns your Medicare payments from your individual NPI to a practice entity's bank account — typically your own PLLC or professional corporation — without changing your underlying individual enrollment from the 855I. You remain the enrolled practitioner; the 855R only redirects where Medicare sends the money. A solo owner who bills under a practice entity files both: the 855I to enroll individually, the 855R to reassign payment to that entity.

By Gale Editorial · Updated 2026-07-26. Every figure cited to a dated source. How we write.

What reassignment changes, and what it doesn't

The 855R redirects where Medicare sends your payments — from your individual NPI directly to a practice entity's bank account, typically your own PLLC or professional corporation — without touching your underlying individual enrollment 1Ref 1Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026).Form CMS-855I — Medicare Enrollment Application: Physicians and Non-Physician Practitioners.That the 855I establishes individual Medicare enrollment separately from any reassignment of payments to a practice entity.. Your 855I enrollment stays exactly what it was: you're still the enrolled practitioner, still subject to the same licensure and disclosure requirements, still the one whose NPDB and exclusion status matters to CMS.

Think of the 855I as who is enrolled and the 855R as where the money goes — two separate questions that happen to be filed on related forms. A solo clinician who bills entirely under their own name and personal bank account, with no separate practice entity, generally doesn't need an 855R at all.

Who actually needs to file one

You need an 855R if you've formed a practice entity — a PLLC, a professional corporation, or a group practice's group NPI (NPI-2) — and want Medicare to pay that entity directly rather than you personally under your individual NPI 2Ref 2Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026).Provider and Supplier Enrollment.That CMS publishes the enrollment pathway including reassignment of benefits for providers who bill through a practice entity.. If you operate as an unincorporated sole proprietor billing under your own name with no separate entity, there's nothing to reassign; Medicare already pays you directly through your 855I enrollment.

Forming a PLLC without also filing the 855R is a common gap: the entity exists on paper and in your state filings, but Medicare keeps paying your individual NPI directly until the reassignment is actually processed.

File it in PECOS, alongside or right after the 855I

Medicare enrollment transactions — the 855I, the 855R, revalidations, and other changes — are all handled through PECOS using the same Identity & Access (I&A) login 3Ref 3Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026).Medicare PECOS.That Medicare enrollment transactions, including reassignment, are transacted in PECOS with an I&A login.. If you're enrolling for the first time and forming a practice entity at the same time, most solo owners file the 855I and 855R together in the same PECOS session rather than waiting for the 855I to fully clear first.

The entity itself needs its own NPI (an organizational NPI-2) obtained through NPPES before the 855R can reassign anything to it — the reassignment form has nothing to point payments toward until that organizational NPI exists 4Ref 4Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026).National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES).That an organizational NPI for a practice entity is obtained through NPPES, a prerequisite for reassigning payments to it..

What the entity side has to match

The practice entity's legal name, EIN, and bank account information on the 855R have to match exactly what's on file with the IRS and your bank — a mismatched legal business name is one of the most common reasons a reassignment gets kicked back for correction rather than processed on the first pass. Confirm your PLLC's legal name is entered identically everywhere: your state formation documents, your EIN letter, your bank account, and the 855R itself.

Any future change to the entity — a legal name change, a new EIN, a new bank account — requires an updated 855R; the reassignment doesn't self-correct when the underlying entity details change, and Medicare keeps paying the old account information until you file the update.

Check your own record before you submit either form

Any practitioner can self-query the National Practitioner Data Bank for a small fee before submitting Medicare paperwork, seeing exactly what a reviewer's own check will surface ahead of time 5Ref 5Health Resources and Services Administration (2026).National Practitioner Data Bank.That a practitioner can self-query the NPDB for a small fee to see in advance what a reviewer's own check will surface.. This matters as much for the 855R as the 855I, since a reassignment tied to an individual enrollment with an unresolved disclosure issue can stall along with it — the two filings move through review together in practice even though they're legally distinct.

Keep your NPPES record current for both your individual NPI and your entity's organizational NPI before filing either form 4Ref 4Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026).National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES).That an organizational NPI for a practice entity is obtained through NPPES, a prerequisite for reassigning payments to it.; a mismatch on either side is one of the more common causes of a held-up reassignment.

Reassignment doesn't end your individual eligibility to bill

Reassigning payments to an entity doesn't remove your ability to also bill and be paid individually — you can maintain both, and some solo clinicians do, especially when transitioning from solo practice into a PLLC gradually rather than all at once. What matters is that the reassignment on file matches how you're actually structured at the time you bill, since a claim submitted under the wrong reassignment status is a common source of an otherwise avoidable denial.

Medicare covers psychiatric diagnostic evaluation, psychotherapy, and — since a 2024 statutory change — services from marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors as newly eligible provider types, all subject to the same 855I/855R structure regardless of specialty 6Ref 6Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2025).Medicare and Mental Health Coverage.That marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors became Medicare-eligible provider types in 2024, subject to the same enrollment structure. As of July 2026.. A newly eligible provider type forming a practice entity for the first time follows the identical reassignment mechanics as any other specialty.

Reassignment doesn't touch your participation status

Whether you're a Medicare participating provider, a non-participating provider, or opted out entirely is a status attached to your individual 855I enrollment — it doesn't move when you file an 855R, and filing a reassignment doesn't reset or default that status back to anything. Participation, non-par, and opt-out are decisions you make separately, on their own timeline, and they stay in effect regardless of how many entities you reassign payments to or stop reassigning to.

Resolve your participation choice before you assume a newly formed entity is being paid the way you expect: the amount and terms Medicare pays follow your individual enrollment's participation status, not anything set on the 855R itself, so a reassignment filed without checking that status first is a common way a solo owner is surprised by what actually lands in the entity's account. Work out participation, non-par, or opt-out on its own before treating the 855R as the last step in getting paid.

Common questions

No. The 855R only applies when you want Medicare payments sent to a separate practice entity's bank account instead of to you individually. An unincorporated sole proprietor billing under their own NPI and personal bank account has nothing to reassign.

Most solo owners file both in the same PECOS session when enrolling and forming an entity at the same time, but the reassignment depends on an active individual enrollment underneath it. Expect the two to be reviewed together rather than as fully independent timelines.

Filing an updated 855R is required. The reassignment doesn't automatically follow a new bank account or a legal name change — Medicare keeps sending payments to whatever account is currently on file until the update is submitted.

No — the practice entity needs its own organizational NPI (NPI-2) from NPPES before the 855R can reassign anything to it. The 855R reassigns payment to an entity that must already be enumerated; it doesn't create the entity's NPI itself.

Yes. Reassigning payments to a practice entity doesn't end your individual Medicare eligibility — you remain the enrolled practitioner under your 855I. What matters is keeping the reassignment status on file accurate to how you're actually billing at any given time.

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References

1.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026). Form CMS-855I — Medicare Enrollment Application: Physicians and Non-Physician Practitioners. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). link ✓That the 855I establishes individual Medicare enrollment separately from any reassignment of payments to a practice entity.
2.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026). Provider and Supplier Enrollment. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). link ✓That CMS publishes the enrollment pathway including reassignment of benefits for providers who bill through a practice entity.
3.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026). Medicare PECOS. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). link ✓That Medicare enrollment transactions, including reassignment, are transacted in PECOS with an I&A login.
4.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026). National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES). Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). link ✓That an organizational NPI for a practice entity is obtained through NPPES, a prerequisite for reassigning payments to it.
5.Health Resources and Services Administration (2026). National Practitioner Data Bank. U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). linkThat a practitioner can self-query the NPDB for a small fee to see in advance what a reviewer's own check will surface.
6.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2025). Medicare and Mental Health Coverage. CMS Medicare Learning Network (MLN1986542). link ✓That marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors became Medicare-eligible provider types in 2024, subject to the same enrollment structure. As of July 2026.

https://www.gale.care/for-providers/pe-medicare-855r-reassignment · 6 sources. Competitor details are cited to dated public sources and maintained as they change; figures are estimates, not commitments. Synthetic demonstration.

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