CMS to Provide Query Access Through Mandatory Reporting

At a recently moderated telephone conference session CMS announced that beneficiary verification would be available through a query function on its new database system to determine eligibility Medicare beneficiary status. The system will be in response to new insurance carrier mandatory reporting procedures that have been Congressionally imposed. The query will be based on 4 basic criteria including: Social Security number; data birth; name or gender. The verified Social Security information will be provided for all criteria except Social Security numbers and a corrected format.

CMS will not provide outstanding conditional payments or other data by use of the reporting system. Individual beneficiaries may be able to find this information upon governmental website that allows for individual beneficiary access through http://www.mymedicare.gov/. That site is accessible only by beneficiaries.

The federal is agency is planning for the release of a User Guide prior to the actual date of mandatory deployment and activation of the federal reporting site. Activation is anticipated in July 2009.