Implementation Date

50.4.2 - Implementation Date (Rev. 66, Issued: 01-07-11, Effective: 02-08-11, Implementation: 02-08-11) The implementation date identified in a change request (CR) is the date by which Medicare fee- for-service contractors and shared system maintainers shall apply all changes detailed in the business requirements, unless otherwise specified. It is the date when all necessary updates to infrastructure, business processes and/or supporting technology changes shall be completed and operational in order to execute new/modified policy and procedure. For CRs that do not require changes to the shared systems (non-system changes), contractors are usually given 30 to 90 days from issuance to implement the CR. For CRs that do require changes to the shared systems (system changes), a date is specified that usually corresponds with one of the quarterly shared system release dates. The date is usually the first Monday of the quarter (for example, January 3, April 4, July 5, or October 3 for 2011). Unless otherwise stated, the implementation date is the same for all business requirements listed within a specific CR. In some instances, a separate implementation date(s) may be given for a particular business requirement(s) within a CR. Implementation and effective dates are frequently not the same. The list below contains the scenarios for the differences: • The effective date and implementation date are different because the first day of the quarter is not a Monday; • The effective date and the implementation date are different because the effective date occurs after the implementation date; • The effective date and the implementation date are different because the effective date occurs before the implementation date, but both dates are in the future; or • The effective date and the implementation date are different because the effective date occurs before the implementation date, and the effective date is in the past, while the implementation date is in the future.