URGENT: WPS J8 MAC Medicare change starts at 2:00 Thursday 7/12/2012

This is for MICHIGAN - as part of the J8 Medicare WPS for Mich Part B BCBSM has announced they will stop taking Medicare claims with the current payor id on Thursday July 12 at 2pm.Claims sent after 2pm will reject with P935 PAYER ID FOR MEDICARE IS INVALID.



WPS officially starts payor id 08202 on Monday July 16, however they have announced "Dark Days" of Friday July 13 through Tuesday July 17. A dark day is a business day during the cut-over period when the Medicare claims processing system is not available for normal business operations. System dark days may occur between the time the outgoing claims administration contractor ends its regular claims processing activities and the incoming claims administrative contractor begins its first day of normal business operations.

Genius is not certain what would happen if you sent Medicare claims with the new payor id between 2:01pm Thursday through 12:00am Monday.It is possible that BCBSM or WPS might hold them until they finish their dark days and process them normally, but we do not have any confirmation from BCBSM or WPS that this actually will happen.

Therefore Genius recommends you do all of your Medicare billing before 2pm on Thursday July 12.Then do no Medicare billing until July 16 or later.On July 16 go to your Insurance Code Files and change payor id 00953 to 08202. Don't change anything else and don't change it before July 16.

Click here for step-by-step instructions for changing the payor id in THOMAS.

After you have changed your payor id on July 16 or later you should be able to resume sending your Medicare claims.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Does this affect Medicare Plus Blue, Medicare Advantage, DMERC, or Rail Road claims?
No, only "straight Medicare". Only insurance companies that you currently have 00953 in as the payor id.

Can I change my payor id before Monday?
You can try and hope they will go through, but we think it is prudent to just hang tight until July 16. In fact, we think it might be a good idea to wait a few days AFTER July 16 to let the dust settle down.

Should I add a new Insurance Code for the new payor id? NO WPS says the contract number is changing?
When WPS or CMS says "Contract Number" when talking about MAC or J8, they mean "Payor ID".  

What if I'm Medicare Part A (UB04 or Facility Billing)?
You need to stop billing at 2pm on July 19. Then change payor id 00452 to 08201 on July 23 and resume sending.