January 2024
Additional features available for uploading medical records electronically
What you need to know
- Health care providers can choose to receive medical records requests through Availity® Essentials and send the records through the Attachments dashboard.
- Register for a Jan. 9 webinar through Availity Essentials to learn how to perform the initial setup to receive requests and send records electronically through the Attachments dashboard.
After completing an initial setup, health care providers will be able to receive requests for medical records through the Claims Attachment dashboard of our provider portal, Availity® Essentials. Providers will then be able to upload the requested medical records through the Attachments dashboard.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network will send these requests when we need medical records to help us adjudicate claims or decide on appeals. Specifically:
- For Blue Cross commercial and Medicare Plus Blue℠ members, this function supports specific claims servicing requests.
- For BCN commercial and BCN Advantage℠ members, this function supports the appeals process.
We’ve updated the Submitting medical records through Availity Essentials document with information about completing the initial setup in our provider portal to receive these requests and uploading medical records through the Attachments dashboard.
Register for a webinar to learn more
You can attend a training webinar from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern time Jan. 9 to learn how to set up and use this new function. To register for the webinar:
- Log in to our provider portal, availity.com.**
Note: You must be logged in to Availity Essentials for the links to direct you to the registration page.
- Click here to register.
If the enrollment page doesn’t open, you’ll need to allow popups from availity.com.** To do this, click the popup blocker icon (see below) in your internet browser’s address bar.

If you’re unable to attend a live webinar, a recorded webinar is available within Availity Essentials. To access the recorded webinar:
- Log in to our provider portal, availity.com.**
- Click on Help & Training in the top navigation and then click on Get Trained.
- Click on the Search field at the top of the screen.
- In the Search field, enter BCBSM and then click on Catalog. See illustration below:

- Click on the appropriate link to access the recorded training.
Help keep medical records secure
We encourage providers to upload medical records through Availity Essentials because:
- It’s more secure than submitting by fax or mail and helps protect health information.
- It avoids the limitations of faxing.
- It reduces manual effort.
We still accept paper and fax submissions
For providers who don’t want to receive these requests through our provider portal:
- We’ll continue to send medical record requests as we did prior to the release of this new function.
- We’ll continue to accept paper and fax submissions of medical records.
- Providers can continue to submit medical records by going to the Claim Status screen, locating the claims for which they want to submit medical records and clicking on Send Attachments. This process is outlined in the document titled Submitting medical records through Availity Essentials.
Additional information
You can also access the Submitting medical records through Availity Essentials document by doing the following:
- Log in to our provider portal, availity.com.**
- Click on Payer Spaces on the menu bar and then click on the BCBSM and BCN logo.
- Click on the Resources tab.
- Click on Secure Provider Resources (Blue Cross and BCN).
- Click on the Billing and Claims menu and then click on Claims.
- Click on the Submitting medical records through Availity Essentials (PDF) link.
Availity® is an independent company that contracts with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network to offer provider portal and electronic data interchange services.
**Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network don’t own or control this website. |