CMS Call Tuesday on Preparing for the Medicare Beneficiary Identifier

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a March 20 conference call to answer health care providers’ questions about preparing for the new Medicare beneficiary identifier. CMS will begin mailing new Medicare cards to beneficiaries in April, which will replace the Social Security-based number on the current cards with the new beneficiary identifier. Providers will have until Dec. 31, 2019 to transition to the new identifier for billing and other Medicare transactions. Beginning in October and continuing through the transition period, CMS will return both the Health Insurance Claim Number and Medicare beneficiary identifier on the remittance advice when a provider submits a claim with a valid and active HICN. For more on the initiative, see the AHA’s Regulatory Advisory for members.