If you received a denial on your annual wellness visits (AWVs) on your first round of remittance advices for 2011, it could take until mid or late March for affected carriers to pay you back. At least one carrier that experienced the issue -- which caused their systems to automatically deny many AWVs -- gave me the mid-late March date. That would be First Coast Service Options, with jurisdiction over Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. First Coast officials also revealed that around 1,000 claims were impacted.
I'm reaching out to other carriers right now, and will summarize the results in the next issue of Part B News, which will be here soon. NOTE: There is some good news, which is that even at First Coast, AWV claims dated after Jan. 20 have been successfully paid (and they were billed the same way as those that were wrongfully denied). Looks like carriers have addressed the bug going forward.