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January 22, 2008

Electronic Data Interchange

Medicare Part A 276/277 Version 4010A1 Companion Document

The Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA-AS) require that Medicare, and all other health insurance payers in the United States, comply with the EDI standards adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services for electronic health care transactions. The ANSI X12N 276/277 version 4010A1 Implementation Guide has been established as the standard for the electronic health care claims status request and response transactions. This implementation guide is available electronically at www.wpc-edi.com/HIPAA external link.
The following information is intended to serve only as a companion document to the HIPAA-AS ANSI X12N 276/277, version 004010X093A1 Implementation Guide. The use of this document is solely for the purpose of clarification and is not a substitute for review of the relevant Implementation Guide. The Table provided below indicates those segments or data elements in the X12N 276/277 Implementation Guide version 4010A1 that allow for Medicare to specify its business requirements. The information describes specific requirements used by First Coast Service Options, Inc. Contractor number 00090.
The information in this document is subject to change. Changes will be communicated in the standard Medicare A EDI news bulletin and on the First Coast Service Options, Inc. Web site at www.fcso.com external link. This companion document supplements, but does not contradict any requirements in the X12N 276/277 version 004010X093A1 Implementation Guide.

Below is a Listing of Medicare Specific Guidelines Related to the HIPAA-AS4010A1 276/277 Part A Transaction

Data Elements that are defined by a previous qualifier will contain valid and appropriate information for the noted qualifier. Examples:
If ISA07 has a value of “28” indicating a fiscal intermediary ID Number, then ISA08 will contain a valid fiscal intermediary ID Number.
If NM108 has a value of “XX” indicating a National Provider Identifier (NPI), then NM109 will contain a valid NPI for the identified provider.
Negative values submitted in the following fields will not be processed and will result in rejection of the Claim Status Request:
Total Claim Charge Amount (2200D Loop, AMT02),
Line Item Charge Amount (2210D Loop, SVC02),
Original Units of Service Count (2210D Loop, SVC 07),
Total Claim Charge Amount (2200E Loop, AMT 02),
Line Item Charge Amount (2210E Loop, SVC 02),
Original Units of Service Count (2210E Loop, SVC 07).
First Coast Service Options, Inc. will process your request for claim status information in batch mode, central processing unit to central processing unit (CPU to CPU).
Upon receipt of your 276, 99.9% of all responses will be generated within 2 hours from the time recorded in the “submit time-stamp” except the 277 Response:
TA1 for interchange control errors
997 for syntax errors.
997 to confirm receipt (no interchange control errors or syntax error).
277 Response Transaction will be generated within 1 business day of receipt of a valid 276 inquiry.
First Coast Service Options, Inc. will process your 276 as identified in the implementation guide and create a 277 as identified in the implementation guide. At least the minimum response data will be sent.
The 276 transaction must utilize delimiters as defined in the standard. The delimiters selected must not occur in the transmitted data elements. The delimiters used in a 277 response or in an acknowledgment may not necessarily be the same as the delimiters submitted in the original 276 Request Transaction.
You must submit incoming 276 Claim Status Request data using the basic character set as defined in Appendix A of the 276/277 Implementation Guide. In addition to the basic character set, you may choose to submit lower case characters, the _ underscore, the ‘ ‘ space and the @ at sign from the extended character set as field content. Any other characters submitted from the extended character set may cause the interchange (transmission) to be rejected at the translator. Use of the tilde (~), asterisk (*), or greater than sign (>), other than as delimiters may cause the file to reject.
All alphabetic characters in the 277 Response Transaction will be upper case. If lower case characters are included in the 276 Request Transaction, they will be converted to upper case for data storage and return processing purposes.
Multiple functional groups (GS to GE segments) can be sent in one interchange (ISA to IEA segments). Multiple 276s or 277s (ST through SE) can be included in a single functional group.
For Medicare, the subscriber and patient must be the same person. The Dependent Level hierarchical level is never used.
The maximum number of characters to be submitted in the dollar amount field is seven characters. Claim Status Requests with dollar amounts in excess of 99,999.99 will be rejected.
The maximum number of SVC segments per TRN in an incoming 276 Request Transaction is 50.
The subscriber hierarchical level (HL segment) must be in order from one, by one (+1), and must be numeric.
Total submitted charges (AMT02) must equal the sum of the line item charge amounts (SVC02).
Service unit counts (units or minutes) cannot exceed 999.9 (SVC07).
Only loops, segments, and data elements valid for the incoming 276 transaction, as reflected in the X12N 276/277 version 004010X093A1 Implementation Guide, will be translated. Submitting invalid data, based on the Implementation Guide, will lead to file rejection.
All dates that are submitted on an incoming 276 Claim Status Request Transaction should be valid calendar dates, in the appropriate format based on the respective qualifier. Failure to submit a valid calendar date will result in rejection of the Claim Status Request or the applicable interchange (transmission).
First Coast Service Options, Inc. will reject an interchange (transmission) that is submitted with a submitter identification number that is not authorized for electronic claim status submission.
Transaction Set Purpose Code (BHT02) must equal ‘13’ (REQUEST).
First Coast Service Options, Inc. will reject an interchange (transmission) that is submitted with an invalid value in GS03 (Application Receivers Code) based on the carrier definition.
First Coast Service Options, Inc. will reject an interchange (transmission) that is not submitted with unique values in the ST02 (Transaction Set Control Number) elements.
First Coast Service Options, Inc. will only accept claims status requests for one line of business per transaction. Claims status requests submitted for multiple lines of business within one ST-SE (Transaction Set) would cause transaction rejection.
Only valid qualifiers for Medicare should be submitted on incoming 276 Claim Status Request Transactions. Any qualifiers submitted for Medicare processing not defined for use in Medicare billing will cause the individual request or the transaction to be rejected.
First Coast Service Options, Inc. will not accept a 997 response transaction from trading partners in response to their retrieval of the electronic 277 Claims Status Response.
Compression of files using PKZIP is supported for transmissions between the submitter and First Coast Service Options, Inc.
We suggest retrieval of the ANSI 997 functional acknowledgment files on or before the first business day after the Claim Status Request file is submitted, but no later than five days after the file submission.
First Coast Service Options, Inc. will return the version of the 276 Request Transaction in GS08 (Version/Release/Industry Identifier Code) of the 997.

Delimiters

The Functional Acknowledgement report (997) will be returned to you using the delimiters specified within the 276 Transaction. If you would like the 997 to be returned with other delimiters, you will need to notify us of those override delimiters. Note: If you use a tilde (~) as a segment delimiter, your 997 will be returned to you as one string of information “unwrapped.”

276 Request Transaction

Page
Data Segment Name
Segment or Data Element
Supported Values
Requirement
B.4
Interchange Control Header
ISA05
ZZ
Interchange Identity Qualifier for ISA06 Submitter uses “ZZ” value.
B.4
Interchange Control Header
ISA06
 
Interchange Sender ID. Submitter chooses and enters a value later used by the contractor for sending back the 277.
B.4
Interchange Control Header
ISA07
27,28
Carrier submitter uses a “27”; intermediary submitter uses “28” as the Interchange ID. Qualifier for ISA08.
B.5
Interchange Control Header
ISA08
 
Interchange Receiver ID. Submitter uses the CMS assigned Medicare carrier or intermediary number. Enter 00090
28 addenda
Functional Header Group
GS01
 
Submitter uses “HR” to designate the 276.
28 addenda
Functional Header Group
GS02
 
Submitter uses code agreed to by Trading Partners.
28 addenda
Functional Header Group
GS03
 
Submitter uses code agreed to by Trading Partners.
29 addenda
Functional Header Group
GS05
 
Submitter uses the recommended HHMM format.
55
Payer Name
NM108
PI
Submitter uses the code “PI” to identify that the carrier or intermediary identifier will follow.
56
Payer Name
NM109
 
Submitter uses the identifier provided by the carrier or intermediary.
57
Payer Contact Information
   
This segment is not needed for Medicare.
63
Information Receiver Name
NM108
46
This is the individual or organization requesting to receive the status information.
63
Information Receiver Name
NM109
 
Submitter uses identification code as assigned by the carrier or intermediary.
68
Provider Name
NM108
XX
Submitter uses the “XXV” qualifier for the National Provider Identifier (NPI) in NM109.
69
Provider Name
NM109
 
Submitter enters the NPI provider number.
75
Subscriber Name
NM108
MI
Submitter uses the “MI” qualifier for the patient’s Medicare health insurance claim (HIC) number entered in NM109.
76
Subscriber Name
NM109
 
Submitter enters the patient’s Medicare health insurance claim (HIC) number.
14 addenda
Group Number
REF
 
This segment is not used for inquiries to Medicare.

277 Response Transaction

Page
Data Segment Name
Segment or Data Element
Supported Values
Requirement
B.4
Interchange Control Header
ISA05
27, 28
Contractor enters the valid code as a qualifier for ISA06 for Carrier or Intermediary Identification Number as assigned by CMS. Carriers enter “27” and intermediaries enter “28”.
B.4
Interchange Control Header
ISA06
 
Contractor enters the Carrier or Intermediary Identification Number as assigned by CMS.
B.4
Interchange Control Header
ISA07
ZZ
Contractor enters “ZZ” Qualifier for ISA08.
B.5
Interchange Control Header
ISA08
 
Contractor enters the ID number assigned by the 276 submitter in the 276, ISA06.
28 addenda
Functional Header Group
GS01
 
Contractor uses code “HN” to designate the 277.
28 addenda
Functional Header Group
GS02
 
Contractor uses code agreed to by Trading Partners.
28 addenda
Functional Header Group
GS03
 
Contractor uses code agreed to by Trading Partners.
29 addenda
Functional Header Group
GS05
 
Contractor uses the recommended HHMM format.
131
Payer Name
NM108
PI
Contractor enters the “PI” qualifier for NM109.
132
Payer Name
NM109
 
Contractor enters identification code.

Reports

If your file contains incorrect enveloping information (ISA, GS, ST, SE, GE, IEA segments) a TA1 will be returned to you. If your enveloping information is correct, your file will create a Functional Acknowledgement (997) report. The 997 report, sent to your mailbox for retrieval, will tell you if your file has been accepted under X12 Standard. Standard requirements can be found in the 4010A1 Implementation Guide (IG) under the “Standard” heading for each segment. If you need assistance reading your TA1 or 997, please contact Medicare EDI at 904-791-8131, option 2.
If your file rejects at 997, all errors must be corrected and the file resubmitted. We will not contact you in regards to a rejected file.
If your file passes the Standard, it is then reviewed for X12 Implementation Guide (IG) requirements. X12 Implementation Guide requirements can be found in the 4010A1 Implementation Guide under the “Implementation” heading for each segment and in the body of the segment information.

Schedule Your Optional Testing Appointment

Providers, agents and clearinghouses are not required, in most cases, to be tested on their 276/277 transaction prior to initial submission of a 276 or a request for receipt of a 277. You are required to notify Medicare when you plan to begin submitting 276 version 4010A1 queries. Those who prefer advance testing must schedule testing. To schedule an appointment, call Medicare EDI at (904) 791-8131 option 2.
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