Medical practices in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee will be saying goodbye to one Medicare administrative contractor (MAC) and welcoming a new one after the calendar flips to 2018.
Effective Feb. 26, 2018, providers billing Medicare Part B in the three southern states officially will shift their claims processing and all other MAC-directed operations to
Palmetto GBA, the MAC currently covering North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
At that time, Cahaba GBA
will forfeit its hold over the three states in jurisdiction J, aka JJ. Palmetto GBA will assume coverage of Part A services in those states as well, leaving the future of Cahaba, which has been around since Medicare's inception and will lose its only active jurisdiction under Parts A and B, in question.
CMS awarded Palmetto with JJ in a decision rendered Sept. 7, and the expanding MAC will have several months to get ready to welcome the new provider community.
On its website, Palmetto encourages providers to join its listserv and announced it also
is rolling out a transition workshop series starting on Oct. 23. Also, providers in JJ can expect at least some automation to the enrollment process. "As part of the transition, Palmetto GBA will auto-register those providers that are currently registered in Cahaba's portal."
"Palmetto GBA is pleased to be selected as the contractor for the JJ A/B MAC," states the Palmetto website. "We anticipate a smooth transition and assure you that we are taking measures that will provide the least disruptive impact to day-to-day operations of the provider community."