Re: Medicare billing question

[Guest guest]

Yes, the bill always goes to Medicare first, if Medicare is the primary. In many

cases, Medicare will automatically forward the bill to the secondary insurer

after they pay their share, but only if the patient has set that up. It will

tell on the EOB if they have done that. If not, you need to send the bill to

the secondary, along with Medicare's EOB, so you must do a paper bill for the

secondary. If the bills are not being automatically forwarded to the secondary

by Medicare, you can save yourself work by having the patient call their

SECONDARY insurer to arrange for the bills to " cross over " directly from

Medicare. You cannot do it for them, and they must call the secondary insurer,

not Medicare. In rare cases (usually if the patient is covered under a working

spouse's company plan), Medicare will be the secondary. To read about that, go

to www.cms.gov and ready about " coordination of benefits. "

>

> OK...so can someone please enlighten me regarding the billing of medicare

> supplement policies. Does the first bill for the visit go to medicare or to

the

> (for example) Blue Cross Medicare Supplement F/J etc plan??. Blue cross is

> saying send everything to medicare.

>

> Thank you in advance for your help as I struggle through billing.

>

> Dannielle Harwood, MD

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