CMS Issues New WCMSA Reference Guide and Section 111 NGHP User Guide

As of October 1, 2018, CMS has issued updated versions of both the WCMSA Reference Guide and the Section 111 NGHP User Guide.

 WCMSA Reference Guide Version 2.8:

The updates found in version 2.8 of the Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Reference Guide are as follows:

– As a part of an ongoing process, CMS must discontinue use of Social Security Number-based Medicare identifiers and distribute new randomly selected Medicare identification numbers to all beneficiaries, referred to as Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs). Accordingly, all fields formerly labeled HICN are now labeled “Medicare ID” and will accept either an individual’s HICN or MBI (if assigned)

– The link to the CDC Life Expectancy Table has been updated. This link can be found at bullet #7 of Chapter 10.3 of the Reference Guide.

– The Verifying Jurisdiction and Calculation Method for medical reviews has been updated. This information can be found in Tables 9-1 and 9-2 in Chapter 9.4.4 of the Reference Guide.

– Version 2.8 of the WCMSA Reference Guide can be found here.

NGHP Section 111 User Guide Version 5.4:

The updates found in version 5.4 of the Section 111 Non-Group Health Plan User Guide are as follows:

– To meet Section 111 requirements, a Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) disclosure statement has been added to this guide. This disclosure can be found on page iii of the User Guide.

– The contact protocol for the Section 111 data exchange escalation process has been updated. This escalation process can be found in Sect. 8.2 of the User Guide and in short, provides the contact information for the newly appointed EDI Director.

– In order to ensure updates are applied to recovery cases appropriately, RREs are asked to submit the policy number uniformly with a consistent format. When reporting updates enter the policy number exactly as it is entered on the original submission whether blank, zeros, or a full policy number. This requirement is discussed in greater detail in Sect. 6.6.5 of the User Guide

– The excluded and no-fault excluded ICD-10 diagnosis codes have been updated for 2019. These codes can be found in Table I-1 and J-1 of Chapter V of the User Guide.

– The placement of the decimal point in the excluded ICD-10 “Y codes” of table I-1 has been corrected. For example, in version 5.3 of the User Guide these codes were written as Y921.10 whereas it should be written Y92.110. These codes are now written correctly.

Each chapter of the Section 111 NGHP User Guide, version 5.4 can be found here.

Gordon & Rees remains committed to bringing you the most up to date information regarding all things Medicare Secondary Payer related. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions about the newest versions of these reference guides.