What Are Some of the BCBS Prefixes?
Examples of Blue Cross Blue Shield prefixes are AAU, MRT and XZA for members in California, Illinois and Minnesota, respectfully, according to The Health Exhibit. BCBS alpha prefixes are either plan-specific or account-specific, explains the BCBS of Texas.
Alpha prefixes are the three characters that precede a subscriber identification number on BCBS identity cards, notes the BCBS Association. The prefixes identify the member’s BCBS plan or national account and become essential when routing claims for processing.
In plan-specific alpha prefixes, the first two characters denote a given plan, while the third character identifies the product type chosen by the member, explains the BCBS of Texas. For instance, the” Z” and “G” in the prefix “ZGP” are BCBS-assigned letters, and the” P” denotes a preferred provider organization, or PPO, product. Conversely, the account-specific alpha prefixes assigned to national accounts have their characters associated with the group name of the employer. For instance, UTS is the national account prefix for the University of Texas.
BCBS member identification numbers are six to 14 characters long, although some ID cards lack the prefix, says the BCBS of Texas. Whenever submitting a claim, members should not omit or randomly choose the alpha prefix. However, the filing instructions for the identification cards that lack alpha prefixes are different from instructions for cards that have prefixes.