Newsroom

Medicare Secondary Payer outreach

July 2010

In late 2008 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new requirement, referred to as Medicare Secondary Payer, for health plans to gather key data about commercial group plans and their enrollees. HealthPartners is required to collect a federal tax identification number (TIN) from all employer groups. The TIN is used when a company files federal income tax returns and is also known as the Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN or EIN).

Earlier this year we submitted the TINs we collected from our employer groups to the federal government, which compared them to the IRS database. We were told some of the TINs we had on file were incorrect. As a result, we are reaching out to groups that came back as incorrect to confirm the TIN we have on file is correct, or to get the corrected TIN.

If the number we have on file matches the company’s records, we need a 147C letter from the IRS as proof of accuracy for the number. Without this information on file, both HealthPartners and the group could be subject to costly fines from the federal government.

For more information, please visit healthpartners.com/MSP.