In determining the healthcare industry’s state of readiness to begin using the new UB04 form next week, the National Uniform Billing Committee has realized that several snags may cause headaches in the claims processing arena.
Although the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has confirmed that as of May 23, 2007, it will be ready to accept the paper UB04 and will not accept the old UB92 form as of that date, not all state Medicaid programs are prepared to accept the new form. Many larger payers are accepting both forms to help with the transition; however, other payers, such as worker’s compensation and liability carriers, have indicated that they are not migrating to the new form. The NUBC strongly recommends that providers check with their individual payers and state Medicaid programs to determine which form will be accepted for claims processing.
Also, many providers have just begun testing the new format and have not yet created the new form. The NUBC is recommending that vendors work with their providers, payers, and clearinghouses to escalate the implementation and testing of the new format.
Finally, confusion surrounding several of the form locators has been identified. Clarification regarding the correct definitions and usage will be addressed in HFMA’s upcoming audio webcast on May 24. (HFMA is a member and one of the founders of the NUBC.) Read the fact sheet.
