CMS is working to resolve a claims system issue that, if left unresolved, may cause confusion for home health patients.
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system fix is scheduled for May 29 to resolve an issue where claims submitted for processing with a Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) are being incorrectly displayed with Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs) in Direct Data Entry (DDE).
With the claims issue, if providers submit subsequent claims using those MBIs, beneficiaries will receive a Medicare Summary Notice with the MBI on it. And that could occur before the beneficiary receives a new Medicare card containing the MBI — meaning the patient wouldn’t recognize the numbers listed on the Medicare Summary Notice.
To avoid confusion that might arise with the claims issue, CMS recommends agencies avoid using a beneficiary’s MBI until:
- Beneficiaries present their new Medicare cards (with the MBI);
- The MBI is available in the MBI Lookup tool through the eServices online portal; and/or
- The beneficiary’s MBI is shared through the remittance advice starting in October 2018.
CMS announced last year that it was going to provide new Medicare cards that would identify beneficiaries by MBIs instead of the HICNs. MBIs won’t include the beneficiary’s Social Security number, and removing that is designed to eliminate a security concern (
HHL 7/3/17).
CMS began mailing out new Medicare cards to patients beginning in April and will continue its rollout to all Medicare beneficiaries over the next year.