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Back by popular demand. Check back weekly for tidbits. NEW AUTHENTICATION ELEMENT FOR CALLS TO CUSTOMER SERVICE AND THE IVR (Part A & Part B) Effective April 6, 2009, when you call Customer Service or use the Interactive Voice Response (IVR), you will be required to provide a third data element for authentication: the last 5 digits of your Tax Identification Number (TIN). You will only be allowed three attempts to correctly provide your National Provider Identifier (NPI), Provider Transaction Access Number (PTAN), and last 5-digits of your TIN.

Ladies & Gentlemen: We take great pride at www.askleslie.net with sharing accurate information and offering this information for free. We are adjusting to a new format and it has it's challenges (actually the users do, ME especially) I shared this article that I received and although I attributed it to the appropriate person and publication, I failed to preview in haste. I did not realize that acknowledgement was NOT there. We want to thank Dr. Dreama Sloan-Kelly, MD, CCS from MedicalCodingShop.com for her newsletter that I read faithfully!

Hey All, Did you know that the American Medical Association (AMA) has created a National Health Insurer Report Card, with the first results release last year, 2008? For the start of this program the AMA assessed the following payers: • Medicare • United Healthcare • Aetna • Anthem BCBS • Cigna • Coventry • HealthNet • Humana

How does this affect you? Read the entire story here: http://www.businessinsurance.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=15046

NY has made the stand and won, however... if you read the articles at the links referenced below you will not see any settlement for the "Insured" if it has been determined that the carriers must repay for their re-pricing practices why aren't the consumers being offered claims re-processing and refunds for deemed over payments? Am I missing something? Comments, feedback - get your voice heard and especially if you are one of the consumers that more than likely will face premium increases to offset the settlement payments!