Prospect is not sending EOBs anymore as of 09/01/17

Hello everyone! Just a quick public service announcement. 

Prospect, and all of the IPAs that it administers, will not be sending paper EOBs anymore. The claims and authorizations website doesn’t have them in a way that is easy to get by date, so you need to sign up with your clearinghouse to receive the 835 ERA files. 

Those IPAs include: 

Prospect

Nuestra Familia

Genesis

Gateway

Pomona Valley Medical Group aka PVMG aka ProMed

Upland Medical Group

This DOES NOT include Prospect LA Care because that is administered by MedPoint Management. Because why not. 

I use Office Ally, so, that is the only one I will really be able to help you get enrolled with. Here is the 835 ERA form  that you would need to fax in to get your EOBs electronically. 

If you use a different clearinghouse, call them to get the proper forms. Some of you may have billing systems that handle your claim, eligibility, and ERA set up on your behalf with the clearinghouse. Not a comprehensive list by any means, but if you use Advanced MD, WebEDoctor, or Athena, you need to call your software support people directly, and the sooner the better. 

This is really for my Southern California providers and billing services. Heads up guys. 

Every practice does it…

I was debating continuing the joke into inappropriate-land, but my professionalism got the better of me.

By “IT” I mean, no matter how careful the front desk is, the doctors occasionally see a patient that has an insurance the doctor is not contracted with. If you have a lot of non-contracted patients slipping through, please read my post on how to run a tight ship at the front desk. The purpose of this article is not to cast blame, but to help you deal with the inevitable insurance fight that will result when this does happen.

Just like all posts, this will have a detailed article and a summary wrap up at the end, and a downloadable guide. If you are looking for particular information, try pressing CTL + F and a little search box will pop up. Put a one to two word search query there and press enter. You should jump directly to the part of the post that applies to you.

The BEST case scenario when you end up with an out of network patient, is that they have a PPO, Managed Care (MC), or Place of Service (POS) plan with out of network benefits. The patient will end up paying more toward their coinsurance or deductible, which, you know, sucks for them, but the allowed amount for the provider will be the same as the in network rate.

If the non-contracted insurance is an EPO, the patient has no out of network benefits. No matter how much you appeal, you will not get any payment from this insurance. Now you have to break out your flow chart. If the patient doesn’t have anything secondary to their EPO, you bill them your cash price. Or the full price. Whatever. You do you. If the patient does have a secondary, you send a claim to the secondary with a copy of the primary denial and hopefully you are contracted with them.

Here is where it gets a little complicated. If the patient has a commercial HMO, there are a ton of rules the IPA will cite in order to deny your claim. And, if the patient does not have a secondary insurance, you can decide how much effort you are going to put in trying to get the insurance to pay your claim. You can bill the patient right away or you can appeal the charge to the non-contracted IPA. I, personally, will fight with the insurance company for a couple of rounds before I bill the patient. A patient who has insurance is very unlikely to pay your bill, even if they legitimately owe it. A patient who has an HMO generally has less money in their budget then someone who has a PPO or EPO and is even less likely to pay your statement. Here are your options with a commercial HMO patient.

1. You are a family practice/internal med contracted with the IPA, but you are not the PCP. Unfortunately, in this case, there is probably not much you can do. You can try sending a claim to the claims department with the medical records and a letter requesting retro authorization. Here is an example of a letter requesting retro authorization. You would update the letter to explain what happened in your case. I have not had much success in convincing the insurance to pay in this situation. Mostly because the IPA has ALREADY paid the other provider their cap for that patient for the month. They are not going to pay you another cap payment, and they REALLY don’t want to pay you fee for service. 
2. You are a family practice/internal med and you are not contracted with the IPA. You have a better shot in this situation getting a retro auth from the insurance. You would use the same type of letter as in the above example. I have about a 70% success rate when this happens. 
3. You are a specialist and you did not get an authorization. Whether or not you are contracted, you have about the same chance of getting paid if you did not get a prior auth or single case agreement. You write a letter to convince the insurance that the services were medically necessary, or urgent. 

One of the most complicated situations arises when a patient comes in and hands you a Medicare card, but it turns out they actually have a Medicare Risk HMO plan. If the patient does not have a secondary, you would handle the charge in one of the ways outlined above. However, most of our patients with MR Risk HMO plans, also have Medicaid secondary (called Medi-Cal here in California). If your provider is contracted with Medi-Cal you are not allowed to bill a patient under any circumstances. It does NOT matter that the patient went to the wrong doctor, it does NOT matter that they gave you the wrong insurance, it does NOT matter that they specifically withheld information regarding a primary insurance, it does NOT matter that the insurance they became effective with on the first of the month when you saw them is not one you are contracted with, it does NOT matter that you requested an urgent auth and the insurance denied it. Medi-Cal does not care. My out of state readers will have to let me know if your Medcaid works the same way, but that is how it works here. Also, Medi-Cal has been forcing people into HMOs as well. So what often happens, is that a supposedly straight MR patient comes in, you bill MR and they deny it stating the patient has an HMO. You can’t send that denial to Medicaid because the secondary is also an HMO and you are not the PCP. And, unlike in the previous situations, you are not allowed to bill the patient. 

Here is an example of a letter that I have successfully used to get payment from an IPA in this exact situation. 

I have added all the letters to the links and tools page, and I have created this Downloadable non-contracted patient guide, to help you easily determine what you need to send where in which situation. If you need help with your specific patient, and your specific situation, send me an email.

If your office needs training or consulting or an audit, or if you decide that all of this is too much hassle and you want to pay someone else to do it for you, you can give me a call (909) 374-5439. I am awesome at this stuff. All the partners in New Generation are awesome at this stuff, actually, and we will train, consult, or bill, well, awesomely.

How to bill Medicare HMOs

I know that is a very ambitious title, but a few people here have been emailing me with questions on this topic. I figure, if a few of my readers are taking the time to email me, then there are far more of you out there with questions. The good news is, the answer is fairly simple.

The emails I have been receiving fall into three main categories.

1. How do I bill a pap smear to a Medicare Risk HMO?

2. How do I bill flu shots/pneumococcal shots to a Medicare Risk HMO?

3. When Medicare says a patient has an HMO, is Medicare secondary?

And here are your answers:

1.  How do I bill a pap smear to a Medicare Risk HMO?

As you might remember from my previous post, Everything you ever wanted to know about pap smears, each HMO has its own way of doing things. Some want the diagnosis V72.31, others want V76.2. Some want to follow Medicare rules, and some want to pay with the preventative code.  Some won’t pay anything at all, instead they capitate it. The best way to find out how your HMO will pay your provider’s claim is to get a copy of the provider’s contract.  

2. How do I bill flu shots/pneumococcal shots to a Medicare Risk HMO?

By and large, the Medicare Risk HMO plans want us to use the Medicare codes for the flu and pneumonia substances. For the flu, use the Q-codes for the substance and the G0008 for the administration. For the pneumo, use 90732 for the substance and G0009 for the administration.  For a more thorough explanation, go take a look at my Medicare and Immunizations post.  Please remember, not all IPAs have the same fee schedule. If this doesn’t work, a quick call to the provider relations department will point you in the right direction.

3. When Medicare says a patient has an HMO, is Medicare secondary?

No.

Please, let me reiterate.

No. The HMO replaces the patient’s Medicare. The claims go to the HMO. We have to follow the HMO rules. The patient may have a copay and you may need an auth. I am training a front desk right now, and this is the policy I have in place.

If a new patient calls to make an appointment, check the insurance online while the patient is on the phone. It takes 30 seconds to check Medicare on the Noridian Endeavor site. If the patient has an HMO, make a note on the schedule and ask the patient to bring in their HMO card as well as their Medicare card.

If an established patient is returning to the office, go online and check the Medicare eligibility. The status of a patient’s Medicare can change month to month. PLEASE do not assume that if a patient had straight Medicare last month, he will again this month.

Once the doctor performs the service, good luck trying to collect from the patient. People hate to pay after they have already received their service.

So, as always, if you have any questions, please call or email. If you want us to come into your office and train your front desk or your billing department, we can do that. We do on-site training for those in our area and online training and Skype conferences for our far away clients.

EDIT: I have had a couple people ask me what you can do when you see the patient before you find out they have a MR Risk HMO.  You can try billing the patient your cash price. Or, you can send the claim to the IPA (medical group) with your medical records attached asking them to review the charge for a retro authorization based on medical necessity. In box 19 on the physical claim form write “please review notes for retro authorization.” I also like to send a letter. Here is a good example of a medical necessity template appeal letter. And everyone who gets paid due to this can thank Molly and David for their rather pertinent emails.