On the CMS-1500 claim form, Box 18 reports hospitalization dates related to the services being billed. This guide explains what the box means and how Pabau handles it.
NOTE: This article is part of the US Insurance Billing Additional Resources series, which walks through every box of the CMS-1500. If you are new to claims in Pabau, start with Creating a US Professional (CMS 1500) Claim.
Box 18 — Hospitalization dates related to current services
Box 18 carries a FROM and a TO date — the admission and discharge dates of a hospital stay tied to the services on the claim. It applies when the patient is being treated for a condition that led to a hospital admission and the payer needs those dates to adjudicate the claim. The box is situational, and outpatient professional claims rarely use it.
How Pabau fills it
Pabau leaves Box 18 blank — the claim editor has no hospitalization date fields, so nothing is printed in the box or sent electronically for it. Claims from Pabau are outpatient professional claims, which is exactly the kind of claim that rarely needs these dates, so for the typical claim there is nothing to add.
NOTE: If a payer does require hospitalization dates, add them in the Claim.MD portal after sending the claim (open the claim under Manage Claim and edit it there), or hand-fill the box on the printed form.
For printing and hand-finishing paper claims, see Exporting and Submitting CMS1500 Claims Manually.