Medicare ABN - If patient has other insurance - what is the procedure

Effect of Other Insurers/Payers  

If a beneficiary is eligible for both Original Medicare and Medicaid (dually eligible) or is covered by Original Medicare and another insurance program or payer (such as waiver programs, Office on Aging funds, community agencies (e.g., Easter Seals) or grants), ABN requirements still apply.   For example, when a beneficiary is a dual eligible and receives home health services that are covered only under Medicaid, but are not covered by Medicare for one of the reasons listed in Table 1; an ABN
must be issued at the initiation of this care to inform the beneficiary that Medicare will likely deny the services.  

Some States have specific rules regarding HHA completion of liability notices in situations where dual eligible beneficiaries need to accept liability for Medicare noncovered care that Medicaid will cover.  Medicaid has the authority to make this assertion under Title XIX of the Act, where Medicaid is recognized as the “payer of last resort” (meaning other Federal programs like Medicare (Title XVIII) must pay in accordance with their own policies before Medicaid assumes any remaining charges)

On the ABN, the first check box under the “Options” section indicates the choice to bill Medicare and is equivalent to the third checkbox on the outgoing HHABN. HHAs serving dual eligibles should comply with existing HHABN State policy within their jurisdiction as applicable to the ABN unless the State instructs otherwise.

Note: If a State has issued a directive to select the third checkbox on the HHABN, HHAs must mark the first check box when issuing the ABN.

Where there is no State specific directive, HHAs are permitted to instruct beneficiaries to select Option 1 on the ABN when a Medicare claim denial is necessary to facilitate payment by Medicaid or a secondary insurer. HHAs may add a statement in the “Additional Information” section to help a dual eligible better understand the payment situation such as, “We will submit a claim for this care to your

other insurance,” or “Your Medical Assistance plan will pay for this care.” HHAs may also use the “Additional Information” on the ABN to include agency specific information on secondary insurance claims or a blank line for the beneficiary to insert secondary insurance information. Agencies can pre-print language in the “Additional Information” section of the notice.