Highmark Medicare Services Awarded New Contract from Centers for Medicare & Medicai...( New Deal Means an Additional 480 posi...),Health

New Deal Means an Additional 480 positions

CAMP HILL, Pa., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Highmark Medicare Services has been selected by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to process Medicare fee-for-service claims from hospitals and other institutional providers, physicians and health care practitioners in Ohio and Kentucky.

This contract also includes the processing of Home Health and Hospice (HH&H) Medicare fee-for-service claims for the states of Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. This contract is part of Medicare contracting reform initiatives passed by Congress in 2003 which established new Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC) for handling both Medicare Part A and Part B fee-for-service claims and other administrative activities. This new contract will add approximately 480 positions to Highmark Medicare Services' current staff.

As the MAC for Jurisdiction 15, Highmark Medicare Services is expected to process approximately 78 million claims annually.

"This is an important milestone for our Highmark Medicare Services organization," said Kenneth R. Melani, president and chief executive officer of Highmark, the parent company of Highmark Medicare Services. "Since changes were announced in the Medicare program several years ago, we have focused on positioning the company for MAC contracts. This contract demonstrates CMS' recognition of our past performance as well as our ongoing operational excellence and customer service. We continue to explore ways to strengthen our contribution to the Pennsylvania economy and our communities by reinforcing our partnership with the federal government and the Medicare program, and through our proposed consolidation with Independence Blue Cross."

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