Form CMS 1500 is formerly known as HCFA 1500 form and also known as the universal claim form. CMS 1500 form is filled out by medical care providers and sent to insurance providers who then process their claims. One of the ways of recognizing these forms is by their color which is usually white and Flint OCR Red.
Form Design
The design and the maintenance of this CMS 1500 form is the responsibility of the National Uniform Claim Committee (NUCC).
The CMS form is sold by the United States government printer or any of your local printers in many different configurations such as single, multi-part or continuous feed. The original forms are used for making claim. You can get a copy from an online source but unfortunately, this cannot be used in making claims. This is because the form will be processed with the help of a scanner which require that the form be of certain color and quality, failure to which the contents of the form will not be read well.
The completion and coding instructions of CMS 1500 can be found on the web and the colors that are necessary to make it usable can also be found. Although the earlier versions were in red, a similar alternative is also acceptable.
Completing form CMS-1500
Filling out the CMS 1500 form is a serious business as even the slightest mistake would mean that the insurance company turns down their claim. Insurance carriers of medical providers reserve the right to turn down a request or claim if they spot even the slightest mistake. In order to ensure that medical providers fill out the forms correctly insurance companies or carriers provide them with a list of guidelines which they need to follow. In addition to those guidelines many medical providers enlist the use of practice management software which minimizes the chances of mistakes as well as fills out the forms in the fastest time possible. The trick with this software is that the medical provider needs to enter in the right information in the software’s database so that it can fill out the form correctly, hence avoiding mistakes.
Unlike other forms filling out the CMS 1500 form can be tricky and difficult especially for people who haven’t been taught how to fill it out. What can add to the confusion and ambiguity of this form is the fact that every insurance carrier has their own way of understanding the information entered into the form. They will however provide the medical provider with all the required instructions which ensures that nothing goes wrong. So for instance if you are trying to bill an insurance carrier that requires authorization the medical provider’s authorization number will need to be entered into the form. Without this authorization number the form may be rejected by the insurance carrier. Many carriers will also indicate exactly where the medical provider needs to enter this information so for instance they may indicate that it be entered in box 23. When using multiple insurance carriers there can be added confusion and so knowing the requirements of each insurance carrier and double checking the form becomes 100% necessary.
