The Medicare enrollment process is a critical area of the program as it serves as the gateway for physicians and other health care providers into the program. Before physicians can bill Medicare they must submit an enrollment application to their Medicare contractor and have it successfully processed. Unfortunately, there have been significant problems with the Medicare enrollment process over the past several years. As a result of our recent advocacy, CMS has placed a renewed emphasis on addressing many of the systemic problems with this process. The AMA continues to communicate to CMS the Medicare enrollment concerns of physicians in an effort to mitigate these problems.