Posted in #Medicare, #Medicareadvantage, #reimbursement, EmblemHealth NY, NY Providers, Payer Updates, Pharmacy (Various Insurance Payers), Training

Emblem Health new Specialty Meds/Pharmacy Policy

Effective 7/14/25 there is a new specialty pharmacy policy will apply to all of Emblem Health lines of busines: commercial, Medicare, medicaid.

Image via emblemhealth

This policy applies to all outpatient providers in the following place of service: outpatient hospital, physician office,home of the member and ambulatory infusion.


Takeaways:

1. According to this policy the providers need to contact the respective specialty pharmacy to request prior auth and are only allowed to bill for specialty medications administration NOT the medication itself.

2. The Specialty Pharmacy will be allowed to bill Emblem health under the member’s medical benefit and receive reimbursement.

Image via EmblemHealth

3. For any Medicaid EmblemHealth plan- the medicatin codes must be on Medicaid Fee Schedule. If the code is not listed it will not be reimbursed.


Exclusion: this policy does not apply to home infusion providers.


For a full list of specialty medications please visit Emblem Health for more information and a PDF version of the policy


Find this type of blog post useful? Subscribe to my blog and keep current with payer updates, medical billing and coding guidelines.


Posted in #reimbursement, #unitedhealthcare, NY Providers, Training

NYS UHC Community Plan: which services require a referral?

With the uncertainty increasing in the Healthcare industry it is imperative to keep yourself updated on which plans require referrals from PCPs to see a specialty.


UHC Community Plan members might not require referrals for all of their specialists but some still do:

  • Allergy and immunology
  • Dermatology
  • Endocrinology
  • Gastroenterology
  • General surgery
  • Neurological surgery
  • Orthopedic surgery
  • Otolaryngology
  • Physical medicine and rehabilitation/physiatry
  • Plastic surgery
  • Podiatry
  • Pulmonary medicine
  • Sports medicine
  • Urology
  • Vascular surgery

Please make sure that the PCP goes on the https://www.uhcprovider.com/ and uses the referral solution in the Provider Portal to create a referral in order to avoid any unnecessary denials.


Find this content useful? Follow my blog for more up to date Healthcare information.


Posted in #reimbursement, #unitedhealthcare, NY Providers, Payers and CPT reinbursement, Training

NYS UHC Community Plan OBGYN required codes

Are you an OBGYN that practices in NYS and accepts UHC Community Plan? Then this blog post is for you.

As per UHC Community Health Plan announcement the claims need to be submitted with the additional codes:

0500F – Initial prenatal visit
0502F – Subsequent prenatal visit
0503F – Postpartum visit 

These codes are not reimbursed separately and are only used for HEDIS reporting.

Please do not forget to bill the proper OBGYN codes (global, etc) in order to get reimbursement.


Find this blog post useful? Follow my blog for more current medical billing, coding and reimbursement updates.