The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently mailed letters to all Medicare providers about the department’s plans to issue new Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs) and new Medicare identification cards to beneficiaries beginning in April, 2018.
These new MBI and Medicare cards are part of CMS’ ongoing effort to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards and claims, as required under the MACRA law.
Please be informed that NextGen Healthcare clients using NextGen Ambulatory EHR and/or NextGen Practice Management have the ability to enter the new MBI number by updating the patient’s policy number in Insurance Maintenance. The policy number field is the same field the existing number was entered and also where commercial insurance plan policy identification numbers are entered.
Additionally, the new 5.9/8/4 release gives users the ability to “mask” Social Security numbers in your NextGen® software.
More information on the new features as well as the process and timeline for complying with the MBI/Social Security Removal requirements can be found here on Success Community.
More info from CMS is also available including this sample letter and print-friendly fact sheet.