# Medication refills



## etld (Feb 23, 2012)

Is it acceptable to bill for medication refills when requested by the patient, and if so, what code do you bill with?  Billing an E/M code 99211 does not seem correct if an E/M was not done, but is it proper to bill a tele e/m code 99441 if the physician does not speak directly with patient?  

 If you do bill for them, are Ins companies paying them?  I would like some input on this.

Thank you!


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## pieczynski1 (Feb 23, 2012)

*Med Refills*

We bill the patient directly with code 99371 for $15 and make them aware while on the phone with them and mark this in our nurse's notes section that pt is aware they are being billed for this NON-INSURANCE item. We do not even attempt to bill the insurance company anymore as we have never with any code had any luck with this. You can not bill this service to MCR pts (or that is what we have been told at my office). Hope this helps!


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## ollielooya (Feb 23, 2012)

Hmmmmm, I was very interested in this thread and just noticed the code you supplied is a deleted code as of 2008?  In its place are the 99441-99433 codes.  ---Suzanne E. Byrum CPC


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## jmcpolin (Feb 23, 2012)

If you are not billing the insurance it really does not matter what code you use.


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## ollielooya (Feb 24, 2012)

Hi, Jennifer, thanks for pointing that out, but.....

...In essence that may be true, but for the sake of argument how would it look if you bill the patient with that code, and the one who receives the bill happens to be someone familiar with coding business?  I don't think it would paint a very good picture of a practice that keeps current.  This has been an interesting thread for sure!  ---Suzanne E. Byrum CPC


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## etld (Feb 24, 2012)

Are there any Ins companies that do pay for 99411?


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