On November 1, Blue Cross & Blue Shield (BC&BS) of Kansas becomes the new fiscal agent for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

On that day, BC&BS will begin operating the Medicaid Managed Information System (MMIS), which processes claims sent in by more than 18,000 medical providers billing for Medicaid services. BC&BS, which has been working with SRS for the last 15 months to design the new MMIS system, takes over for Electronic Data Systems (EDS), the agency's fiscal agent since 1978.

The majority of providers -- those already enrolled in the system with EDS -- will automatically become enrolled in the BC&BS system. These providers will have a new 10-digit provider number automatically assigned to them and will be notified of their new number this month.

The exception involves current providers of Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), who will be notified of their new 10-digit provider number early in October.

But providers not enrolled in Medicaid and the current MMIS system with EDS on or before September 27 will not be issued a provider number until after the new system comes on line November 1.

Providers who plan to serve people receiving medical assistance through Medicaid who are not yet enrolled in the MMIS system are urged to call the EDS provider enrollment unit at (913) 273-5704.

If a Medicaid provider has an application pending with EDS after September 27, it will be forwarded to BC&BS. Providers with applications pending will be issued provider numbers retroactive to the date of the application. But these providers will be unable to submit claims until their provider number is issued by BC&BS after November 1.

The MMIS system processes about 8 million Medicaid claims a year, or about 30,000 a day. There are about 200,000 Medicaid recipients in Kansas and about 18,000 medical providers serving Medicaid recipients.

The state has incorporated numerous new system enhancements and functional changes into the new MMIS system. These include complete replacement of the current base MMIS system. This change is necessary because the current base MMIS system is very difficult to maintain and upgrade.

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001