Question
I work in health care. When presented with more than one insurance cared,how can I determine which insurance is primary and which is secondary? In what case would Medicare be secondary? If a patient has medicare and medicaid, which would be primary?
Answer
If the patient has Medicare and Medicaid, that's easy...Medicaid is always the last payer of resort.
If it's Medicare and other insurances, there is a chart outlining the different scenarios and situations that would easily identify who is primary. The chart is available on your local Medicare intermediary's website...you'll just have to look for it or call your intermediary for help. The different scenarios will be if the patient is retired, if the insurance is the patient's spouse, etc... you can always call the Medicare COB department on an individual basis to verify if medicare is primary or secondary.
When we're talking of 2 commercial insurances, usually it goes by the birthday date of the insurer, which ever birthday comes first (based on month and day), has the primary coverage.
Good luck
