Finding previously unidentified insurance coverage can feel a little like a game of hide and seek. Patients may not always be aware of their insurance or eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, and, in an effort to both improve the patient financial experience and simultaneously improve collections, providers are often tasked with finding this information on the spot. Historically, providers have used demographic information like Social Security Numbers (SSN) as a means to verify patient identities and locate this information, but that tactic is increasingly unreliable as it is possible for more than one person to use the same SSN and SSNs are a lucrative route to stealing someone’s identity.
With this in mind, many health plans are no longer using SSNs as an identifying number for insurance coverage. In fact, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently removed SSN-based Health Insurance Claim Numbers (HICNs) from Medicare cards and are now using Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs) for Medicare transactions like billing, eligibility status, and claim status.
The latest health plans to remove this piece of demographic information is Health Net Medi-Cal and Health Net National. Effective September 25, 2020, the search options for eligibility for this plan have changed. Providers will ONLY be able to find and verify coverage with a subscriber ID.
“Providers are often tasked with finding this information on the spot.”
While Health Net Medi-Cal and Health Net National are the latest health plans to do away with demographic searches, it’s certainly not a surprising trend and more will likely follow suit.
Bridging the gap with historical data
Uncovering previously unidentified coverage is critical for providers as it helps to eliminate costly self-pay situations, bad debt write-offs and unwarranted charity designations. And, without the proper insurance information, patients also risk delayed access to care and other financial hardships.
With demographic searches on the decline, providers will need a more efficient and reliable way to search for coverage. As a data-driven company with a historical repository of claims data, Experian Health is uniquely positioned to help providers search for coverage.
Combining search best practices, multiple proprietary databases and historical information, Experian Health’s Coverage Discovery locates patients’ billable commercial insurances that were unknown or forgotten, and combs through Medicare and Medicaid coverage. This flags accounts that may have been destined as a write-off or charity and maximizes reimbursement revenue by identifying primary, secondary and tertiary coverage. Not only do fewer accounts go to bad-debt collections, but providers can automate the self-pay scrubbing process.
A tool like Coverage Discovery is even more beneficial for providers during COVID-19, where limitations of face-to-face contact make it more difficult to complete the usual coverage checks. Coverage Discovery empowers providers to facilitate coverage checks remotely, avoiding delayed reimbursements during a time when revenue streams are already feeling pressure.
“As a data-driven company with a historical repository of data, Experian Health is uniquely positioned to help providers search for coverage.”
Want to learn more? Contact us to see how Coverage Discovery can help find previously unidentified coverage and reduce bad debt.
