October Newsletter 2018

Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI)

Did you know the new Medicare MBI will not contain the letters S, L, O, I, B and Z.  Numbers 0 to 9 are used will be used to avoid confusion between similiar appearing letters and numbers, i.e. O and 0. You can learn more about the MBI format specs here.

MBI on Remittance Advice Starting October 1, 2018
Starting October 1, 2018  and continuing through December 31, 2019, the Medicare remittance advice (EOB) will show the Medicare ID submitted on the claim in the MID field.  If the claim was submitted with the Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN), the patient’s new MBI will be listed for your reference.  See a sample Remittance Advice here.

NY Workers’ Compensation Board Announces CMS-1500 Initiative

The NY Workers’ Compensation Board has decided to adopt the CMS-1500 form.

The Board will replace the following forms with the CMS-1500:

• Doctor’s Initial Report (Forms C-4, EC-4)
• Continuation to Carrier/Employer Billing Section (Form C-4.1)
• Doctor’s Progress Report (Forms C-4.2, EC-4.2)
• Ancillary Medical Report (Forms C-4AMR, EC-4AMR)
• Doctor’s Narrative Report (Form EC-4NARR)
• Occupational/ Physical Therapist’s Report (Forms OT/PT-4, EOT/PT-4)
• Psychologist’s Report (Form PS-4)

The NY Workers’ Compensation Board’s expected implementation time line is as follows:

Phase 1 – Voluntary Submission (Effective January 1, 2019)

Phase 2 – Explanations of Benefits Transmittal (On or about July 1, 2019)

Phase 3 – Mandatory Submission (On or about January 1, 2020)

The full article can be found at: http://www.wcb.ny.gov/CMS-1500/index.jsp

STI will keep you posted on upcoming ChartMaker® Medical Suite changes to accommodate these new requirements.

Tricare East Rejections – New Enrollment and Payer ID Change as of January 2018
Are your Tricare East claims being denied by Change Healthcare?

• As of January 1, 2018, Tricare North and Tricare South merged into Tricare East.
• Enrollments were required for Claims (837), ERA (835), and if you participate in EFT, you must also complete the EFT enrollment.
• The new payer ID is 68299
• Payer ID 57106 and TREST are invalid payer ID codes and claims will be denied at Change Healthcare.

Check Change Healthcare’s Customer Portal (Vision).  If you are finding rejected claims and need assistance to correct the payer ID and/or to confirm your enrollment was completed, contact Practice Manager Support for assistance.

Get an Update on the Mailing Strategy
Since April 2018, CMS has been mailing new Medicare cards based on geographic location and other factors. For an up-to-date status of the mailing, read more here.