# Billing number sale prohibition

A term used when buying optometry practice.

The federal rule that a Medicare billing number may not be sold or lent, so an asset buyer enrolls anew.

The wording leaves no room: a provider or supplier is prohibited from selling its Medicare billing number or privileges to any individual or entity, or allowing another entity to use it. So in an [asset purchase](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/asset-vs-stock-sale) the medical half of an optometry practice, the part billed to Medicare instead of to a vision plan, does not arrive with the purchase. The buyer enrolls, and the timing is the cost: retrospective billing reaches back thirty days before the effective date where circumstances precluded enrolling in advance, and CMS may return a [change-of-ownership](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/change-of-ownership) application filed more than ninety days before the anticipated sale. Nothing at a citable standard says what a vision plan does on a change of owner, which is worth asking each plan directly.

Part of: Buying an Optometry Practice (https://searchspheresource.com/guides/buying-an-optometry-practice)

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/guides/buying-an-optometry-practice/terms/billing-number-sale-prohibition
Not dated: The same editorial definitions as the glossary, inside a trade.

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt