Heads up: The federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN) Form for renewal. As of August 31, 2022, labs and other providers must use the new ABN labeled with the appropriate federal OMB Number (0938-0566) and CMS-R-131 to ensure they can bill Medicare beneficiaries for any lab tests or other services that Medicare doesn’t cover.
The renewed form includes no substantive changes from the previous version, with one exception: The expiration date listed on the bottom is June 30, 2023. So, beginning August 31, 2022, only ABNs carrying that expiration date will be recognized as valid.
Also unchanged is the CMS guidance providing instruction on properly completing the ABN form. As before, ABNs must be reproduced on a single page, either letter or legal-size, and include 10 blanks, labeled from (A) through (J). CMS recommends removing the lettering labels from the blanks before issuing the ABN to beneficiaries. Blanks (A)-(F) and blank (H) may be completed before delivering the notice, as appropriate. Entries in the blanks may be typed or handwritten, but should be large enough (i.e., approximately 12-point font) to allow ease in reading.