Question: I used to bill for a facility and am new to the role of practice manager on the physician side. Can you explain to me when a practice would use the CMS-1500 form instead of the UB-04?
Answer: As a pediatric practice, you shouldn’t need to use the UB-04 form. The definitions of the UB-04 and CMS-1500 are as follows:
Professional providers should generally submit claims using the CMS-1500 forms and institutional providers should submit claims using the UB-04.
Hospital-based ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) generally use the UB-04 form for facility charges and the CMS-1500 form for the professional charges of the physician, but anyone performing services in an ASC should check payer guidance to determine which code they should report.