Medicare HETS 270/271 Submitters:
The Medicare HETS 270/271 system is now accepting eligibility requests with Dates of Service in January, 2009. However, since the 2009 Medicare Co-Insurance and Deductible amounts have not yet been finalized by CMS, HETS cannot properly respond to 2009 requests. Due to this situation, HETS 270/271 is currently returning an AAA03=42 "Unable to Respond at Current Time" error for all 2009 Dates of Service.
CMS is working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. In the meantime, CMS recommends that you submit eligibility requests with a Date of Service of no later than December 31, 2008. CMS will notify all HETS 270/271 Submitters when this issue is resolved and when the 2009 Medicare Co-Insurance and Deductible amounts are finalized and ready to be returned in the 271 response.
Please contact the Help Desk if you have any questions or comments.
Medicare Customer Assistance Re: Eligibility (MCARE) Help Desk
1-866-324-7315