Starting in March, we’ll no longer attach approval letters to Blue Cross commercial inpatient authorizations

Starting in March 2024, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan will no longer attach formal approval letters to inpatient authorizations in the e-referral system for our Blue Cross commercial members. Approval notifications for these requests will still be available through the Case Communication field in the e-referral system, as they are today.

This change applies to requests for acute inpatient medical/surgical initial admissions and continued stays.

We’ve already made this change for acute inpatient medical/surgical requests for Blue Care Network commercial members.

For nonapproved acute inpatient medical/surgical requests, denial letters will continue to be attached in the Case Communication field.

To obtain a copy of your authorization, click the Printer-Friendly link in the upper right corner of the Inpatient Authorization Details screen. This converts the authorization to a PDF file, which you can save or print.

For information about using the e-referral system, see the Getting Started page of our ereferrals.bcbsm.com website.