New Medicare Card Means Updates to CMS Forms
By Ellen Terry

PWK_Cover_LetterSo you’ve heard about the new Medicare ID card for patients. But wait — there’s paper to go with that plastic.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a new fax/mail cover sheet for submitting an unsolicited paperwork segment (PWK) with an electronic claim. Novitas Solutions and other Medicare contractors now accept only this new version of fax/mail cover sheet. 

The new ID cards replace patients’ Social Security number-based health insurance claim number (HICN) with a new Medicare beneficiary identifier (MBI). You can file Medicare claims and exchange other data with CMS using either the HICN or the MBI through Dec. 31, 2019. 

On the new cover sheet, a generic “Medicare ID” replaces “HICN,” so be sure to use the same identification number on both the PWK cover sheet and the claim.

As a reminder, do not fill out a PWK if you receive an additional documentation request letter from Novitas; instead, follow the directions in the letter. See the Novitas website for more information about the medical review process for PWK.

If you have questions about billing and coding, or payer policies, contact TMA’s payment specialists at paymentadvocacy[at]texmed[dot]org, call the TMA Knowledge Center at (800) 880-7955, or check out our online Billing and Coding Resource Center.


Last Updated On

April 17, 2018

Originally Published On

April 12, 2018

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