There’s Always Something New to Learn

If you are new to the medical billing business you will soon learn that there is always something new to learn. We’ve been running our business for 16 years now and we heard a new one from Medicare today.

When submitting claims to Medicare electronically they have always been paid in 14 days. When they are submitted on paper they are paid in 28 days. We submit to several different Medicare carriers and they are all the same. 14 days electronically and 28 days on paper.

Recently we started a new provider and sent her first batch of Medicare claims. Yesterday was the 14th day so we called to make sure they released the payment. We were surprised to hear they were still “pending”. After calling again today, to find them still “pending”, Michele talked to a rep who stated that yes they can be paid in 14 days but they have up to 30 days to pay. I don’t know if we have just been lucky that we’ve never run into this before. Anyone else out there seen this?