# Assistant Surgeon Billing Rate



## Partha (Jul 15, 2009)

*How much can an Assistant Surgeon bill - 20% or 25% of Surgeon?*


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## RGALVEZ (Jul 15, 2009)

We bill 25%. Most carriers will only pay 12% of the Surgeons' "allowable". I am not aware of anything wriiten in "stone" about how much you can bill. As with any charges, the carriers are only going to pay the "contracted" rates.


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## RBrletich (Jul 15, 2009)

We bill 25% out for our assisant surgeons also. I haven't seen or heard of a cap amount that you can bill for it.


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## LLovett (Jul 15, 2009)

Medicare has caps on what you can bill the patient after they processed it, but nothing stating you have to limit your charge amount to them or any other payer.

My suggestion would be to find out who your highest payer of these services is and make sure your fees are a little above that. The problem with pricing too high is that your adjustments look horrible and it messes your A/R up.

Medicare pays 16% of fee schedule for a physician acting as assistant surgeon and 85% of that for a PA (roughly 10.4% of their fee schedule).

Laura, CPC


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## donsqueen (Jul 15, 2009)

A clinic I used to work for always billed same price as primary surgeon and let the carriers make the adjustment. My current employer bills 20-25% of the primary surgeon's charge.


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## Partha (Jul 16, 2009)

Thanks guys!


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## Partha (Jul 16, 2009)

*"What if the Asst Surg is non-par."*


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## cammyl01 (Jun 8, 2010)

*billing the assist surgeon at the same rate as the primary*

Can anyone tell me where I would find something that states the assistant surgeon is suppose to bill the same amount as the primary surgeon?


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