Billing information
Electronic claim payment options
AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia (DC) works with ECHO Health, Inc. (ECHO), a leading innovator in electronic payment solutions, to offer more electronic payment options to our health care providers. Providers can select the payment method that best suits their accounts receivable workflow.
Virtual credit card (VCC)
ECHO Health offers virtual credit cards as an optional payment method. Virtual credit cards are randomly generated, temporary credit card numbers that are either faxed or mailed to providers for claims reimbursement. VCC payments have several advantages for providers:
- No need to enroll or fill out multiple forms in order to receive VCC.
- Personal information is never requested, such as practice bank account information.
- Payments are accessible the day the VCC is received.
Providers not registered to receive payments electronically will receive VCC payments as their default payment method, instead of paper checks. Your office will receive either faxed or mailed VCC payments, each containing a VCC with a number unique to that payment transaction, an instruction page for processing the payment, and a detailed explanation of payment/remittance advice (EOP/RA).
Normal transaction fees apply based on your merchant acquirer relationship. If you do not wish to receive your claim payments through VCC, you can opt out by contacting ECHO Health at 1-888-492-5579.
Electronic funds transfers (EFT)
Electronic funds transfers allow you to receive your payments directly in the bank account you designate rather than receiving them by VCC or paper check. When you enroll in EFT, you will automatically receive electronic remittance advices (ERAs) for those payments. All generated ERAs and a detailed explanation of payment for each transaction will also be available on the ECHO provider portal.
If you are new to EFT, you will need to enroll with ECHO Health for EFT from AmeriHealth Caritas DC.
Please note: Payment will appear on your bank statement from PNC Bank and ECHO as “PNC — ECHO.”
To sign up to receive EFT from AmeriHealth Caritas DC, visit ECHO Health Direct Enrollment. There is no fee for this service.
To sign up to receive EFT from all of your payers that process payments on the ECHO platform, visit ECHO Health Enrollment. A fee may be required to receive EFT if you select the all payers option.
If you already receive payments from ECHO Health, you may be able to enroll for EFT with AmeriHealth Caritas DC using your existing account. Please make sure you have an ECHO Health draft number and corresponding payment amount so your enrollment request can be validated.
A draft number is listed as the EPC draft number on ECHO Health's explanation of payments. If you need assistance locating an ECHO payment in order to register, contact ECHO at 1-800-946-4041, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.
If you have questions on how to enroll in EFT, please visit ECHO Health Direct Enrollment.
Electronic remittance advice (ERA)/835 file
Electronic remittance advices (ERAs) (often referred to as an 835 file) are also available through ECHO Health. To receive ERAs from AmeriHealth Caritas DC, it is important to check with your practice management/hospital information system vendor to see if the system includes both the AmeriHealth Caritas DC Payer ID 77002 and the ECHO Health Payer ID 58379.
If you are not receiving any payer ERAs, please contact your current practice management or hospital information system vendor to ask if your software can process ERAs. Your software vendor is then responsible for contacting ECHO to enroll you for ERAs under the AmeriHealth Caritas DC Payer ID 77002 and the ECHO Health Payer ID 58379.
If your software does not support ERAs or you continue to reconcile manually, and you would like to start receiving ERAs only, please contact the ECHO Health enrollment team at 1-888-834-3511.
If you have additional questions regarding VCC, EFT, or ERAs, please call the ECHO Health support team at 1-888-492-5579.
Additional Resources
Availity claims attachment transactions (PDF)
Quick Guide — Signing up for e-Services (PDF)