URGENT – All Indiana Part B Providers and Suppliers Need To Be Financially Prepared to Withstand 2 TO 4 WEEKS WITHOUT MEDICARE PAYMENTS Due To Indiana Medicare’s Transition to a New Financial Accounting System

The summary below has been provided by Joy Newby, LPN, CPC, PCS of
Newby Consulting, Inc.

Temporary Waiver of the Claims Processing Payment Floor
CMS has approved National Government Services’ waiver request to reduce the payment floor for both paper and electronic data interchange (EDI) claims. Beginning on March 6, 2012 payment cycle, payments will be released gradually for claims that have already been approved for payment. [Emphasis added]

• March 6, 2012: Payment floor reduced to 7 days for EDI claims and 14 days for paper claims.
• March 7, 2012: Payment floor reduced to 0 days for EDI claims and 0 days for paper claims.

This temporary reduction of the payment floor will result in payments being issued early for both checks and Electronic Funds Transfers (EFTs). This may give the appearance that your cash revenues have increased when in fact you received payments for some of your claims earlier than normal. Providers are encouraged to monitor their payments and make adjustments, as necessary to prevent cash flow problems during the transition period. [Emphasis added]

Depending on whether you are on EFT or are still receiving paper checks, please realize that while your cash flow will increase around March 8 and 9, due to the release of all claims for payment, you are going to experience a lean period because you will not be able to submit new claims beginning March 8th through March 11th (and March 12 may be a “dark day” as well depending on how easy the transition goes).

Further, when Indiana Medicare begins accepting new claims on March 12 (or March 13), the payment floors will once again be in full force.

• Electronic claim submitters will experience a significant reduction in payments from March 13 through March 21 because regular payments on electronically submitted claims will not be made during these dates!!
• Paper claim submitters will experience a significant reduction in payments from March 13 through April 5 because regular payments on paper claims will not be made during these dates!!

Please see attached letter for more details.