12/15/2011

Medicare HETS 270/271 Submitters:

CMS is clarifying the previously issued statement about the new requirement to suppress trailing spaces in HETS 270 requests effective this Saturday, December 17, 2011.

The new requirement (announced in Release Summary #2 found in the Downloads section below) will not impact X12 data elements where spaces are required to meet minimum field length requirements. For example, this new requirement will not impact ISA02 or ISA04 elements (where spaces are used to fulfill field minimum length requirements). Similarly, this new requirement will not impact ISA06 or ISA08 elements (where trailing spaces are used to pad values to fulfill field minimum length requirements).

This new requirement will impact fields like the 2100C NM103 element where submitters send a Medicare beneficiary's last name. If submitters have previously been sending data in fields like these with trailing spaces (i.e., "JOHNSON "), they will receive an error. Data submitted in elements like these should contain no trailing spaces (i.e., "JOHNSON").

Please contact the MCARE Help Desk if you have any questions or comments.

Medicare Customer Assistance Re: Eligibility (MCARE) Help Desk
1-866-324-7315