In late summer 2007, the California Department of Health Services (DHCS) plans to implement new billing requirements that prohibit most providers from billing Medi-Cal using a recipient’s Social Security Number (SSN). Providers should continue to make a good faith effort to obtain the Benefits Identification Card (BIC) information from the recipient and use the BIC when verifying eligibility, billing Medi-Cal or submitting Treatment Authorization Requests (TARs), instead of using the recipient’s SSN.

Recipient Outreach
Providers can assist with the recipient outreach effort by:

• Reminding recipients to take their BIC with them to the doctor, pharmacy, hospital or any other health care provider to receive services.
• Instructing recipients to contact their county welfare office if they do not have a valid BIC or paper ID card, or if they need to report a lost or stolen BIC.
• Printing a copy of the Always Take Your BIC With You notice and sharing it with their Medi-Cal patients or the patients’ family members, caretakers or authorized representatives. The notice is available in the following languages:

  Arabic Armenian Cambodian Chinese

  English Farsi Hmong Korean

  Russian Spanish Tagalog Vietnamese

Provider Outreach
To assist providers who have made a good faith effort to obtain their patients' BIC information, DHCS will post, prior to the implementation of the new billing requirements, a county contact list with telephone numbers on the Medi-Cal Web site so that providers can obtain the BIC information.

Use of SSNs
DHCS recognizes the importance of protecting the identity and health information of recipients and strongly encourages all providers to avoid using a recipient’s SSN whenever possible.

Please see future Medi-Cal Updates for more information.