Eli's Hospice Insider

Published on Wed Jul 17, 2019 PDF

The first step of the elimination of ELGA, ELGH, HIQA, and HIQH inquiries is here.

Effective July 1, “when selecting ELGA, ELGH, HIQA or HIQH, a message will display before beneficiary eligibility information is made available. This message will notify you that beginning in the fall of 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to terminate access to ELGA, ELGH, HIQA and HIQH for those who already use the HIPAA Eligibility Transaction System (HETS),” HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor Palmetto GBA says in a recent post on its website. “You will need to press the ‘ENTER’ key to acknowledge the message before eligibility information displays.”

If you use these systems to obtain beneficiary eligibility information, “you may need to modify your program in order to accept the message,” Palmetto adds.

Don’t waste time: “If you currently use both the CWF eligibility transactions and HETS to obtain Medicare beneficiary eligibility information, it is recommended that you begin using HETS exclusively,” Palmetto advises.