By Alice Scott Submitted On April 02, 2007
The highly anticipated CMS 1500 deadline for filing medical insurance claim forms has been extended. Originally April 1, 2007 was the deadline for submitting HCFA 1500 (12/90) claim forms to insurance carriers for medical insurance claims. The new CMS 1500 (8/05) forms were all that were to be accepted after April 1. The CMS now states that they are targeting June 1, 2007 as the cutoff date. HCFA 1500 (12/90) forms will not be accepted after that date.
The reason for this extension was due an error by (you guessed it) the Government. It is reported that they incorrectly formatted a version of the revised form and the incorrect format was released to some vendors. This resulted in some forms being printed with the incorrect format. It is a fairly minor difference, but the practice management systems would not be able to print the forms correctly on the incorrect format.
How can you tell if you have forms that were properly printed? The easiest way is to look at the top of the form. There is a small red arrow at the top right corner of the form. It should be approximately ¼" from the top edge of the form. On the improperly printed forms the arrow is touching or very close to the top edge. You will want to make sure your forms are printed correctly.
The new CMS 1500 forms are currently being accepted and processed by insurance carriers. Forms that are not printed to specification: off line, printing outside of boxes, etc. will be returned to the provider. This is intended to inform the provider of the problem so they can correct it.
Even though we've been given a reprieve, we suggest that you don't wait to make sure you are ready for the new forms. Go ahead and start using the forms as soon as you are capable to see if there are any problems printing them. The new June 1 deadline will come quicker than you think.
Copyright 2007 - Alice Scott
Alice Scott and her daughter / partner Michele Redmond are co-owners of a medical billing service. They offer an informational website for both physician's offices and the general public looking for information or help with their problems with medical insurance billing. Check out their website for more information, more about important changes now going on in Medical Insurance Billing, or to sign up for their free monthly newsletter.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Alice_Scott/41651
No comments:
Post a Comment