Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Facility Bulletins are available to view on-line and to print as needed. To prepare for the current mode of publication, we have reviewed the existing inventory of bulletins issued since 1995, to determine which were still pertinent to the business we do today and which are still requested by providers.
Bulletins Issued Since January 1, 2000
The majority of bulletins published since January 1, 2000 can be found here. However,
certain types of bulletins have been eliminated, such as those which serve as a cover
for publications such as Network Provider News and Clinical Views. In addition, we
removed bulletins such as those announcing Highmark's holiday or HMS's holiday operating
hours in years past, because of their very limited current informational value.
Selected Bulletins Issued Before January 1, 2000
The body of bulletins selected for display here includes some which were published before
January 1, 2000. These documents have been identified as still being relevant and useful
to the provider community, regardless of the year of issue.
If You Need A Bulletin Not Currently Available Here
While every effort has been made to identify all the pertinent bulletin resources, your
facility may occasionally need a bulletin which has not been published here. Should that
become the case, please contact your Institutional Provider Relations representative to
request a hard copy or to have that bulletin considered for on-line publication.
Searching for Bulletins
Ways You Can Search
To make it easier to find the exact bulletin or bulletins you need, Highmark Blue Cross
Blue Shield has implemented a search feature. There are now three ways to search for a
facility bulletin.
All three of these methods can search only the body of bulletins which are available on-line. Bulletins which have not been moved onto this platform cannot be displayed using the search function.
The Search Results Page
When you enter search criteria in any of the ways described below and select the Search button,
all bulletins which match these criteria will be returned to you on the Results page. When they
are first displayed, the entries are sorted by bulletin date, from the most recent to the least
recent.
If you wish, you can change the order in which they appear on the page:
1. Search for Bulletins By Term
The first section of the Search page allows you to search for bulletins which contain a particular word, phrase or code. Most standard Internet rules apply to searches in the Facility Bulletins file. Here are a few to remember.
Limit the Search Range
To make your search productive and efficient, you will need to limit the range of information
you wish to view. You will need to select a bulletin category, key in a
term and click onthe button for the appropriate term type.
For example:
To display all provider bulletins referencing the word laboratory, you would select and enter the following information:
Category (select from the drop-down box): Provider Search Term (key): "laboratory" Search Type (click on button): Bulletin Keyword
To display any provider bulletins which Highmark issued in May 2001, you would select or enter the following information:
Category (select from the drop-down box): Provider Search Term (key): 05/2001 (MM/YYYY) Search Type (click on button): Bulletin Date
You will notice that the default Search Type is Bulletin Keyword. If you want to search by bulletin date or bulletin number, be sure to select that option by clicking on the appropriate button.
Searching for Exact Words, Codes or Phrases
If you know the exact word or code you want to see, surround that term with quotation
marks ("XXX") For example, if you wanted to view bulletins including the word
pend, you would enter "pend" as the Search Term.
The search engine will return to you every bulletin it can find which matches that term
exactly.
If you entered code "99" as the Search Term, the system would return only those bulletins which included exactly that code. It would not display, for example, HCPCS code 99213.
When You're Not Sure How the Word is Referenced or Spelled
When you're not sure how the term you're searching for is referenced in the bulletins,
or when you are not sure how it's spelled, you can enter part of the word or code,
followed by an asterisk (*). When you do this, the system will return to you all bulletins
including words or codes which begin with the letters or numbers you entered. For example,
if you entered the Search Term pend* , the system would return every bulletin
it can find which includes words beginning with pend - such as pend,
pends and pending. (Notice that you wouldn't use quotation
marks in this instance because you don't want the system to seek an exact match to the term
you entered.)
Similarly, if you entered Search Term 99*, the system would return all bulletins containing any code beginning with those two numbers.
Searching for Bulletin Numbers
When searching for bulletins by bulletin number, the format counts! To work within the
guidelines of this publishing tool, Highmark has needed to make a minor change in the
format it uses when numbering bulletins.
As before, the bulletin number is composed of a category (e.g., PROV), a four-digit year, a three-digit sequence number and a one-character region indicator (e.g., W for western region). However, in the new format, all the components of the bulletin number are linked by hyphens (-). There are no spaces between components, and no parentheses are used with the region indicator. For example:
| Old format: | PROV 2001-005 (W) |
| New format: | PROV-2001-005-W |
When searching for a bulletin by bulletin number, you don't need to capitalize the category, and you don't need to enter a region indicator. To search for the bulletin named above, you could enter either PROV-2001-005 or prov-2001-005. Either would work. (It would not work, however, if you left out the hyphens.)
Here is a list of bulletin categories with the appropriate abbreviation, for your reference:
| Category | Abbreviation used in Bulletin Number |
| Alcohol - Drug Rehabilitation | ADR |
| Ambulatory Surgical Center | ASC |
| CRT and Electronic | ELEC |
| End-Stage Renal Disease | ESRD |
| Home Health Agencies | HHA |
| Home Infusion Therapy | HIT |
| Hospice | HOSPICE |
| Hospital | HOSP |
| Medicare+Choice (formerly SecurityBlue) | MPC |
| Provider | PROV |
| Psychiatric | PSYCH |
| Skilled Nursing Facilities | SNF |
| Veterans Administration | VA |
2. Search for Bulletins Issued in the Last 30 Days
Select a category here and a list of all the bulletins of this type published within the last 30 days will be returned to you. Please note that in order to keep search results within space limitations, each category must be searched separately; there is no mechanism to search all categories at the same time.
3. Browse Bulletins by Category
This selection presents a listing of all bulletins available in the category you select from the drop-down box. If you select a category which contains a large number of bulletins, you may need to scroll through multiple pages of listings.
Bulletin Category: Medicare+Choice
Notice that in the table above, the bulletin category Medicare+Choice replaces the category
formerly known as SecurityBlue. (This is because Highmark now has a second Medicare+Choice
product, FreedomBlue, and most future bulletins in this category will apply to both products.)
Bulletins previously published under bulletin type SecurityBlue now display the category
MPC ("Medicare+Choice") as part of their name, since the publication software
considers +, the plus sign, to be a special character. This change will allow providers to
search for bulletins targeted specifically to any of Highmark's Medicare+Choice products in
one selection. Bulletins previously published under a SecurityBlue bulletin number can still
be found through a keyword search for the term SecurityBlue.
About Attachments
Some bulletins have attachments which are not part of the original document. These appear as an active link at the end of the bulletin. To display the attachment, just click the link. To print the attachment, use the File-Print options from the Microsoft Word toolbar. (Attachments can only be printed from the initial presentation version of the bulletin. See below.)
About Printing
You can view two versions of the bulletin on-line. The version which is presented as a result of your search is intended for on-line viewing only. While you can print this initial version of the bulletin if you wish, you will probably be disappointed in the appearance of the printed page. To print a formatted copy of the bulletin and to save paper, you will need to select the Printer Friendly Version link in the upper right corner of the screen.
Please note that attachments cannot be printed from the Printer Friendly Version of the bulletin. If you need to print an attachment, you will need to return to the initial presentation version of the bulletin to do so.