Is electronic billing required for Medicare?

Electronic filing of claims is not a requirement yet for Medicare, but is sure is a good idea! Here’s the deal: with Medicare DME, if you submit a paper claim, they will put a 28 day hold on that claim before they even begin processing it. So – if the office is okay with an approx. 90 day turnaround for medicare claim, paper claims are fine. With electronic medicare claims though, they will normally see payment in about 2 weeks!

Now, what IS required for medicare is registration for EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) ….. for depositing reimbursement to the providers bank account. The good news is – that gets taken care of during the application process.

Our new clearinghouse, Availty/Realmed, is great for filing electronic claims to Medicare, and are set up with all Medicare DME MAC's. It does take about a month start to finish to get all the paperwork completed and technical aspect set up, but definitely worth it if the office is interested in not only a quicker turn-around time on their claims, but also the ability to check a patients benefits almost instantly! (not to mention status checks, reports, etc).

Let us know if there are any questions!