Wednesday, July 11, 2007

New Features to look forward to in KIP 10.3.34

It seems that Medicare and the private insurance carriers have been changing their requirements as the year progresses, and so KIP has gone through some changes as well.

1) Three modifier codes appearing on invoices.

2) Line Item Report sorted by zip code.

This was added because of new competitive bidding requirements placed on our DME providers. This gives you the ability to show how many of each item was dispensed in each geographic area.

3) The ability to HIDE invoice lines when printing CMS-1500 forms and sending claims electronically.

If you frequently enter invoices with items billed to insurance and patients for a single date of service, you may enter them on a single invoice and "hide" the patient billed items from the insurance billing. This feature, however, does not add the hidden items to the "patient balance" until the invoice is marked as "billed to patient."

If you wish the patient to receive bills immediately for patient responsibility items, you should still create a separate invoice for the patient billed amount.

4) CMS-1500 Box 32 now prints on every claim no matter how you enter the treatment location name.

5) UPIN numbers and NPI numbers appear on all claims.

The NPI number was originally meant to replace the UPIN number. Now, however, both numbers are required on all claims and therefore are printed.

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As you can see, many more changes are required when printing the claim forms than when sending the claims electronically. If you haven't moved to electronic claim submission, you may save some headaches down the road by using this method of billing.

We have also been informed that Medicare is requiring all new providers to receive payments via electronic fund transfer and intends to delay payments to providers who do not accept this method of payment. You may wish to consider registering for Electronic Fund Transfer for faster payments.