continue with our review of the medical billing formats, we will cover the NSF 3 / 01 format for the BA0 record, fields 13 to 28 to conclude our coverage of the BA0 record, the provider data.

BA0 field 13, position 90 - 104, is the number of CHAMPUS provider. Not many people, even if those in the medical billing field, will know what is CHAMPUS. CHAMPUS stands for the Civilian Health and Medical Programs for the uniformed services. This field is the number assigned by the provider to send, when they sending a CHAMPUS claim, which is not very often.

BA0 field 14, position 105 - 119, is the Blue Shield provider number. This is the number that must be sent if the provider sends a claim to Blue Shield.

BA0 field 15, position 120 - 134, is the number of providers. This is the number that must be sent if the provider is sending a commercial claim. A claim is one which is in a place such as Prudential or mutual Omaha.

BA0 field 16 and 17, positions 135 to 164, are the providers of other figures. These are assigned to other providers for sending claims to companies that are not in one of the categories or regularly as a provider of more than a Blue Shield or commercial series.

BA0 field 18, positions 165 to 197, the vendor name of the organization. It is important that the name entered here the full name and not some nickname like Pru Life. It must be the name of the company.

BA0 field 19, position 198 - 217, is the provider name. This is in case the provider is not a clinic and a doctor actually. His last name must be here. Section 20 is the doctor's first name and the same rules as Block 21, which retains its original center.

BA0 field 22, position 231 - 233, is a provider of specialty. This is actually a code, the physician may be selected from a list of specialties, the carriers accepted.

BA0 field 23, positions 234 to 248, is a provider of specialty license number. Each vendor of a particular specialty, such as gastroenterologist, is a license number. This number must be filled in here.

BA0 field 24, positions 249 to 263, is the provider of the state license number. This is the number of the license that allows the provider to practice medicine in this state. These must be filled out!

BA0 field 25, position 264 - 278, is the dentist's license number. This is only filled when the provider is done at a dentist. This is important because dental claims are different than regular data such as DME claims.

BA0 field 26, positions 279 to 293, the anesthesia license number. This is only filled when the provider is an anesthesiologist.

BA0 field 27, position 294, is the provider participation indicator. This indicates whether the provider a participant in this program such as Medicare.

BA0 field 28, position 295 - 320, is a national and fillers must be blank or the claim is rejected.

This is our review of the record BA0 providers.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Medical Billing