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Heed this advice on how to handle the MBI.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n If you use a common trick to get your patients\u2019 correct HICN for billing, that option is going away.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cis aware that some providers currently use a combination of the SSN and various suffixes until they find a HICN that matches their patient,\u201d CMS says in an email about the new Medicare cards that started going out to beneficiaries this month.<\/p>\n \u201cThe CMS will not allow for the return of an MBI in eligibility transactions if the SSN or the HICN is provided because there is a high risk of medical identity theft,\u201d CMS says. \u201cProviders should ensure they have a registration\/admission process in place that requests the Medicare identification card from their patients.\u201d<\/p>\n Reminder:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>The new cards will no longer contain Social Security Numbers, and instead will have the new Medicare Beneficiary Identifier number.<\/p>\n Do you need a quick way to determine whether your patient\u2019s Medicare number is the old HICN or the new MBI? HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor\u00a0National Government Services\u00a0<\/strong>has a few tips.<\/p>\n Tip #1:<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>An HICN uses a Social Security Number with a variety of prefixes or suffixes, while an MBI has a random assemblage of letters and numbers, NGS explains in an email to providers. An example of an HICN is 012345678A, while an example of an MBI is 1EG4-TE5-MK73.<\/p>\n Tip #2:<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>An MBI will not use the letters S, L, O, I, B, and Z.<\/p>\n See more info on the MBI format at\u00a0www.cms.gov\/Medicare\/New-Medicare-Card\/Understanding-the-MBI-with-Format.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n Remember:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>\u201cThe HICN will no longer be accepted on claims received on and after 1\/1\/2020,\u201d NGS says in an MBI timeline.<\/p>\n Source- SuperCoder<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"