New Medicare Card January 1: Use MBIs Now
Reminder to prep your front office now:
Starting January 1, 2020, Medicare will only accept claims submitted with the new Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI). Medicare will reject claims submitted with the Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN), with a few exceptions, and all eligibility transactions. See below information from Noridian.
Patients should bring their Medicare card with them to their appointment since the social security number was removed. If they do not bring the card as of January 1, 2020:
- Give them the Get Your New Medicare Card flyer in English (or Spanish).
- Use your Medicare Administrative Contractor’s look-up tool. Sign up for the Portal to use the tool.
- Check the remittance advice. Until December 2019, Medicare will return the MBI on the remittance advice for every claim with a valid and active Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN).
Starting January 1, you must use MBIs to bill Medicare regardless of the date of service:
- Medicare will reject claims submitted with HICNs with a few exceptions
- Medicare will reject all eligibility transactions submitted with HICNs