Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare may have nearly finished distributing new Medicare cards to existing beneficiaries, but providers still have until next January 2020 to switch to using the new Medicare Beneficiary Identifier number instead of the old Social Security Number-based Health Insurance Claim Number.

Until Dec. 31, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services “will offer a transition period during which the system will accept both HICNs and MBIs on Medicare transactions (including eligibility requests and claims) for beneficiaries in the Medicare program prior to April 1, 2018 (i.e., those who received a HICN on their Medicare card),” HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor Palmetto GBA notes in a new article on its website.

Warning: However, “providers should not submit both numbers on the same transaction,” Palmetto stresses.

Providers also shouldn’t use the grace period to continue an old shortcut — submitting claims with just the patient’s Social Security Number with an “A” suffix. “This has caused thousands of claims to reject,” criticizes MAC CGS in a new article on its website. “As you know, rejected services are a huge time-waster for you because you have to handle the claim a second time, fix it, then resubmit for processing.”

Keep in mind: “A patient may have Medicare benefits under a spouse or parent; therefore, the … HICN may not include the social security number of the patient being treated,” CGS reminds.