Hospitals are now free of the Medicare as secondary payer (MSP) questionnaire as long as they do electronic insurance verification and ask patients whether their insurance has changed when they’re admitted as inpatients or register as outpatients. Medicare Transmittal 123, which took effect on Nov. 20, 2018, now refers to the MSP questionnaire as a “model,” and makes it optional.

In fact, CMS doesn’t want hospitals to annoy patients, assuming they can get Medicare primary and secondary payer information elsewhere.

“The MSP questionnaire is one of those antiquated policies they finally did away with,” says Stephen Gillis, director of compliance coding, billing and audit at Partners HealthCare in Boston. “That transmittal says if I ask the question, ‘Are there any changes to your insurance?’ and the answer is no, it’s pencils down,” he explains. “It’s one less thing to do.”