Medicare AdvantageAdministrativeHigh impact
Change in Medicare Post Acute Care Program Management
Florida Blue·FL·Medicare
Effective date
Oct 1, 2025
We identified it
Jun 16, 2026
Summary
Florida Blue Medicare is transferring management of their Post Acute Care (PAC) authorization program from CareCentrix to Florida Blue Utilization Management effective October 1, 2025. All new authorization requests for skilled nursing facilities, acute inpatient rehabilitation, sub-acute rehabilitation, and long-term acute care must be submitted through Availity Essentials instead of calling CareCentrix.
Action Required
By October 1, 2025: Billing team and providers must transition all new Florida Blue Medicare Post Acute Care authorization requests from CareCentrix phone system (1-877-561-9910) to Availity Essentials Authorization/Referral tool. Update workflow documentation to reflect new submission process. Train staff on using Availity Clinical Attachments for faster processing. Note: CareCentrix will still handle extensions through October 31, 2025, but all new requests submitted after October 1st must use Availity or they will not be processed.