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Application for Medicare Electronic Remittance Advice |
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You are probably already aware of Medicare's plan to stop mailing paper EOBs, and require you to download the ERA (also known as the 835) instead. There is a good deal of confusion about what this means for you; this article aims to clear up a few misunderstandings.
First of all, if you read Medicare's announcement carefully, it boils down to this: if you are currently receiving BOTH the ERA AND a paper EOB, they will stop sending you the paper EOB. That's all it says. Really.- "I'm not currently receiving the ERA! What happens to me?" Well, honestly, Medicare hasn't said yet what will happen, but it's pretty clear that if you're not receiving the ERA yet, you'd better start.
- "I've been using FSRBBS to send my claims for ages, and it doesn't show me my ERAs! What's wrong with your program?" FSRBBS has had 835 display and printing capability for several years now. In fact, FSRBBS will download, display, and (if you want) print ANY response files that Medicare puts in your BBS mailbox. Your problem is that Medicare isn't putting the 835 in your mailbox.
- "What do you mean? Why isn't Medicare sending me the 835?" Because you haven't asked them to. If you applied for a submitter number in the past two or three years, there was a section that asked whether you wanted to receive ERAs, and in which format. (One of the choices was the National Standard Format, which turned out to be not so national and not so standard!) If you didn't check the box for "ANSI 835", then you won't get 835s. If you've been a submitter for longer than a couple of years, then the form you filled out didn't even have that option yet. Either way, you need to tell Medicare that you want to start receiving the 835.
- "So how do I tell them that I want to receive 835s?" By filling out a form (see the link below) and faxing it to them. After that, it's up to them.
- "So this is going to save time, money and paper, right?" Well... not really. It's going to save Medicare time, money, and paper. You, on the other hand - not so much. However, do you have a choice? Not really.
Here's a link to the enrollment form - eraforminfo_0905.pdf |
