The Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) questionnaire exists as a guide for patient access staff members in obtaining the information required to determine who pays the patients' bills, thereby helping to ensure proper reimbursement and avoid billing confusion.

Unfortunately, the correct answers don't always make it onto the questionnaire. The problems often begin when patient access staff members do not understand the relevancy of some of the questions and make assumptions. And when staff members do ask, patients often don't have the answers or don't understand why they are being asked in the first place.