Medicare claims contractors to hold institutional provider claims during test

To test system changes, Medicare claims administration contractors will be holding some institutional provider claims containing 2012 services for up to the first 10 business days of January 2012—Sunday, Jan. 1, through Tuesday, Jan. 17. Claims will be released as system testing is completed, and the hold should not have a minimum impact on provider cash flow because electronic claims are not paid sooner than 14 days after date of receipt, Medicare officials said in a release. However, providers following the status of claims may see abnormal processing data.