CMS is currently mailing new Medicare cards to beneficiaries. Depending on what state you call home, you may have already seen them in the wild.
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 requires CMS to remove Social Security Numbers from all Medicare cards by April 2019. The new Medicare cards feature a randomly-generated Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) to replace the Social-Security-Number-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN). The change impacts nearly 60 million beneficiaries.
During the 21-month transition period that began April 1, 2018, CMS will accept either the HICN or the MBI for claims and eligibility transactions. Suppliers should, however, proactively update billing software with their customers’ new MBIs to avoid delayed claims processing.
Alert your payment posters.
Once CMS assigns an MBI to a beneficiary, it will provide the new identifier to suppliers on every Medicare Remittance notice where the supplier billed using the old HICN. As such, suppliers can use remittances to update applicable patient records. Alert payment posters to watch for these updates and escalate accordingly.
The remittance will include the beneficiary’s MBI in the same segment that reports changed HICNs: 835 Loop 2100, Segment NM1 (Corrected Patient/Insured Name), Field NM109 (Identification Code).
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 requires CMS to remove Social Security Numbers from all Medicare cards by April 2019. The new Medicare cards feature a randomly-generated Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) to replace the Social-Security-Number-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN). The change impacts nearly 60 million beneficiaries.
During the 21-month transition period that began April 1, 2018, CMS will accept either the HICN or the MBI for claims and eligibility transactions. Suppliers should, however, proactively update billing software with their customers’ new MBIs to avoid delayed claims processing.
Alert your payment posters.
Once CMS assigns an MBI to a beneficiary, it will provide the new identifier to suppliers on every Medicare Remittance notice where the supplier billed using the old HICN. As such, suppliers can use remittances to update applicable patient records. Alert payment posters to watch for these updates and escalate accordingly.
The remittance will include the beneficiary’s MBI in the same segment that reports changed HICNs: 835 Loop 2100, Segment NM1 (Corrected Patient/Insured Name), Field NM109 (Identification Code).
See Remittance Advice Example.
For claims filed with the MBI, the corresponding remittance’s changed HICN field will be blank so payment posters can quickly scan remittances to identify patients with new information. Check with your software vendor to determine if the billing application will automatically update patient records with MBIs scraped from electronic remittances.
To engage customers, consider posting notices requesting MBIs on patient invoices and throughout supplier location(s). CSRs should ask the customer if they have received a new MBI during every resupply engagement.
Use of the correct identifier is essential to expedited claim payment. Cross-referencing during the claim adjudication process will impose a delay.
SOURCE LINKS
https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNmattersArticles/downloads/SE18006.pdf
https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/New-Medicare-Card/index.html
For claims filed with the MBI, the corresponding remittance’s changed HICN field will be blank so payment posters can quickly scan remittances to identify patients with new information. Check with your software vendor to determine if the billing application will automatically update patient records with MBIs scraped from electronic remittances.
To engage customers, consider posting notices requesting MBIs on patient invoices and throughout supplier location(s). CSRs should ask the customer if they have received a new MBI during every resupply engagement.
Use of the correct identifier is essential to expedited claim payment. Cross-referencing during the claim adjudication process will impose a delay.
SOURCE LINKS
https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNmattersArticles/downloads/SE18006.pdf
https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/New-Medicare-Card/index.html
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