Meryl Chick is a Consultant with BluePeak Advisors, a division of Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc.
Are you monitoring the Batch Completion Status Summary (BCSS)?
If the answer is no and your Enrollment Team is not utilizing the information contained in the BCSS, you may want to reconsider. CMS just released a new Plan Communication User Guide on May 31st. There is now a transaction reply code of 403 due to a transaction failure. However, this code will only appear on the BCSS. Plans must monitor the BCSS for this code to ensure that all of the transactions are submitted timely. This is also different from a file submitted in an invalid format, which will not receive ANY response from CMS.
Many Plans do not use the BCSS at all or just simply validate that they have received one as a receipt that the file was processed. The BCSS provides information on failed transactions. As we move toward Annual Enrollment Period, use the information in the BCSS to ensure that all transactions are successfully processed.
BluePeak can help!
Contact [email protected] and let us develop a process for you to handle failed transactions from the BCSS before your enrollment team is swamped with applications.
