Deadline approaches for Y2K claims compliance

By April 5, all physician claims submitted to the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) must be filed in the so-called Y2K format (00/00/0000). Claims that aren’t submitted using eight-digit data fields will be returned as "unprocessable." Physician groups complain, however, that the agency still hasn’t made it clear exactly which forms are covered or which data fields must be Y2K-compliant.

Karen Trudel, director of health care information systems standards at the Englewood, CO-based Medical Group Management Association, provides the following clarification:

- The eight-digit data field requirement applies both to paper and electronic claim submissions.

- While HCFA would prefer to have all data fields be eight digits, it’s only requiring that three fields be Y2K-compliant: patient’s date of birth (#3 on the HCFA 1500 form); insured’s date of birth (#11A on the HCFA 1500 form); and other insured’s date of birth (#9B on the HCFA 1500 form).

You still can receive an exemption from your Medicare carrier if you can establish that you have a valid reason for not yet complying with the change. One example given by HCFA is the fact that a practice is still in the process of testing a provider billing system for Y2K compliance.