Home Health & Hospice Week

Do you need a quick way to determine whether your patient's Medicare number is the old HICN or the new MBI? HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor National Government Services has a few tips.

Tip #1: An HICN uses a Social Security Number with a variety of prefixes or suffixes, while an MBI has a random assemblage of letters and numbers, NGS explains in an email to providers. An example of an HICN is 012345678A, while an example of an MBI is 1EG4-TE5-MK73.

Tip #2: An MBI will not use the letters S, L, O, I, B, and Z.

See more info on the MBI format online at www.cms.gov/Medicare/New-Medicare-Card/Understanding-the-MBI-with-Format.pdf.

Remember: "The HICN will no longer be accepted on claims received on and after 1/1/2020," NGS says in an MBI timeline.