New CMS-1500 Medi-Cal (California Medicaid) Guide for Use Beginning January 6, 2014

Medi-Cal has created a New CMS-1500 Medi-Cal Guide to show providers the fields that have changed on the new 02/12 version of the CMS-1500 claim form. Information submitted in the fields will be the same as information submitted previously on the old 08/05 version of the claim form.

Providers can refer to the CMS-1500 Completion or CMS-1500 Completion for Vision Care section in the appropriate Part 2 provider manual for claim completion instructions by field number. Side-by-side comparisons of the current and upcoming claim fields are available in the New CMS-1500 Medi-Cal Guide, which can be downloaded from the new Claim Form Updates page of the Medi-Cal website.

Old and New Claim Versions: Dates of Use
Beginning January 6, 2014, the Medi-Cal claims processing system will be able to accept and process the new 02/12 version of the CMS-1500. The old 08/05 version of the CMS-1500 will continue to be accepted and processed also, but only for three months, through March 31, 2014. Beginning April 1, 2014, only claims submitted on the 02/12 version will be accepted and processed.

Provider Manual Update Plan
The CMS-1500 claim form has been revised to accommodate the ICD indicator that will be required on claims in 2014 with the ICD-10-CM code rollout. Rather than update the entire provider manual to announce claim updates and then next year release the manual pages again with ICD-10 information, Medi-Cal has determined to approach provider manual updates as follows:

• To serve the immediate need for claim completion instructions, the CMS-1500 Completion and CMS-1500 Completion for Vision Care manual sections will be updated. The sections are slated for release in the December 2013 Medi-Cal Update bulletins. A set of instructions for completing the new 02/12 version of the CMS-1500 will be added at the front of each section. The older 08/05 instructions will be retained at the back of the section.
• Claim field names in the provider manual will continue as they appear on the 08/05 version of the CMS-1500. For example, Reserved for Local Use field (Box 19) will be retained and not changed to Additional Claim Information field (Box 19) until later in 2014.
• Billing examples will be retained, as is, in the 08/05 version of the CMS-1500.
• If it is determined that claim instructions must be updated before ICD-10-related manual pages are released in 2014, an analysis will be performed to decide if select manual pages should be updated and released.

The above cost-saving approach will allow several hundred manual sections to be updated only once.

Courtesy of: http://files.medi-cal.ca.gov/pubsdoco/Claims/Articles/claims_21966.asp?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Medi-Cal%20NewsFlash&utm_content=21966