Medicare AdvantageAdministrativeHigh impact
[Georgia] Take action: Use no-cost electronic claims and payments to avoid paper administrative fees
Anthem BCBS·GA·Provider Bulletin
Effective date
Oct 1, 2026
We identified it
Aug 3, 2026
Summary
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield (Georgia) is implementing a $5 administrative fee for each paper-submitted claim and printed paper check, effective October 1, 2026 for Medicare Advantage and November 1, 2026 for Commercial plans. Providers must submit claims electronically and enroll in EFT or another electronic payment option to avoid these fees. The fee applies when claim net paid amount or check total is $10 or greater.
Action Required
By September 15, 2026 (Medicare Advantage) and October 15, 2026 (Commercial): Billing team must complete the following to avoid $5 per-claim/per-check penalties: (1) Enroll in electronic claims submission through Availity Essentials at https://Availity.com if not already enrolled; (2) Enroll in EFT through EnrollSafe at enrollsafe.payeehub.org or call 877-882-0384 for electronic payment processing; (3) Update all billing workflows to mandate electronic claim submission for all Georgia Anthem patients; (4) Notify all providers and billing staff that paper claims and paper checks are no longer acceptable for Anthem Georgia plans; (5) Configure billing system to flag any manual paper claim submissions for denial prevention. Failure to transition will result in $5 administrative fees assessed per paper claim and per paper check issued, directly reducing practice revenue. Monitor remittance advice (RA) and Explanation of Payment for any administrative fee line items indicating non-compliance.