Change to FEP Provider Customer Service information (6/03/2013)
The FEP Provider Customer Service contact information has changed. Please note the new information below:

The Provider Customer Service section on the Contact Us page has been updated to reflect this information.

Medicare crossover claims update – please wait 30 days before submitting the claim to Regence (6/10/2013) [Additional information added on 6/11/13]

Effective earlier this year, when a claim crosses over from Medicare, providers should wait 30 calendar days from the Medicare remittance date before submitting the claim to Regence.

To simplify and streamline claim submission, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) consolidated its claim crossover process under a special Coordination of Benefits Contractor (COBC) by means of the Coordination of Benefits Agreement (COBA). Under this program, the COBC will automatically forward most Medicare claims to the secondary payer, eliminating the need to separately bill the secondary payer.

Blue Plans are now implementing the Medicare crossover consolidation process system-wide, and will continue to do so over the next few months. Once the consolidated crossover process is fully implemented, you should experience an increased level of "one-stop" billing for your Medicare primary claims.

The Medicare crossover process may take up to 14 business days. This means that the Medicare carrier will release the claim to the appropriate Blue Plan for processing the same time you receive a Medicare remittance advice. As a result, it may take up to 30 additional calendar days for you to receive payment or instructions from the Blue Plan after you receive the Medicare remittance.

Medicare primary claims that you submit directly to Regence that crossed over and are received within 30 calendar days of the Medicare remittance date, or contain no Medicare remittance date, will be returned or rejected by Regence. Note: This also applies to Federal Employee Program (FEP) claims.

These Medicare crossover guidelines can save you time and reduce administrative costs.

Recovery letter system error (5/15/2013)
Recently a system error occurred causing a delay of refund recovery adjustment notices being sent. No notices were sent between March 10 and April 19.

On April 22 notices were sent to providers for those adjustments that took place in March and early April. Please reference your March and April payment vouchers for information regarding these adjustments.

Voucher deductions will occur as scheduled, 45 days from the adjustment date. Check payments mailed to us for these overpayment adjustments may not reach us in time to credit before voucher deductions occur. If we have already processed the refund recovery adjustment on your voucher, we will return your check.

Claim payment cycle delayed two days (4/2/2013)

A recent system install caused our claim processing cycle to be delayed by two days. Claim payments that would have been processed on Monday, April 1 will now be processed on Wednesday, April 3. Future payment cycles should return to normal. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Annual medical fee schedule notification sent - Fee schedules updated April 5 (Updated 4/5/13)

By April, medical providers and facilities will receive their annual adjustment to our fee schedule effective July 1, 2013 via email (if signed up for eContracting) or via the United States Postal Service (if documents are received on paper).

Please watch for this important notification.

Sample fee schedule now available on the Provider Center
For your convenience, a sample fee schedule with codes routinely billed by your specialty are now available in the Reference Library of our Provider Center.

If your office is not registered for the Provider Center, please follow these registration steps.

eContracting reminders
The email will be sent from eContracting@regence.com and will not require your signature.

As a registered user of eContracting with a Gmail™ account, we wanted to remind you that Gmail has been known to have some issues with active links embedded in emails. The issues occur when using Internet Explorer.

To help ensure that you're able to quickly and easily view your agreement documents, please review this troubleshooting guide (PDF).

Questions
If you have any questions, please contact your provider consultant.

For past announcements, please view the What's New archive.