What Are Form Locators on the CMS 1500 Form?

Physicians fill out the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 1500 claim forms to record certain medical treatments and procedures rendered to patients with form locator numbers. These CMS forms require the patient's personal information, such as home address and where the injury took place if applicable, insurance information and medical treatment. The form locators can be cross-referenced on other documents that give special instructions to physicians and insurance staff.

Form Locators

• Form locators are numbers at the top left corner of each CMS 1500 claim form box. These numbers may have subcategories if additional field information is required, which is marked as a lower case letter starting with "a, b, c" and so forth.

Descriptions

• Form locators have descriptions to specify the type of information that needs to be added in the field box by the patient, physician or medical provider. Other documents can cross-reference special information by listing the number from the CMS 1500 claim form. An instructional page may also accompany the CMS form -- referencing the form locator numbers -- as to which fields need to be filled out by the physician, insurance company or patient.

Claim Requirements

• When certain documents, such as an insurance company's update information regarding billing procedures or a physician's office request for special insurance provider instructions regarding a claim, reference the CMS 1500 claim form, the document may add additional clarification on which fields are required to be filled out and which are not. These form locator descriptions will specify items, such as "required" or "required, if applicable." Other words that may be found include "optional" and "not applicable." These words may be in bold type or italics.

Special Instructions

• Insurance companies may provide tables of information as technical guidance for inputting data into computer records. These tables have special instructions used by technical and business staff in software applications. These tables reference the form locator number and the electronic information required for the field.