Enforcement of Mandatory Electronic Submission of Medicare Claims

CMS announced that the HIPAA contingency period for claims sent to Medicare would end on October 01, 2005. This termination does not apply to claims that Medicare sends outbound to other payers that have signed a coordination of benefits (COB) trading partner agreement for the transfer of claims by Medicare. It does apply to claims sent to Medicare for secondary payment following processing by a primary payer, however. Therefore, effective October 01, 2005, electronic MSP claims must comply with all X12 837 version 4010A1 implementation guide requirements, and include standard claim adjustment reason (CAS) codes to describe adjustments that a primary payer made during adjudication, or they will be rejected.