# Documentation for nursing home visits



## mlittle17@hotmail.com (Feb 24, 2015)

I have a provider who says that all he has to furnish for billing nursing home visits is the patient name and the date he was there and that I should just "bill the same as last time."  I believe that the billing document should contain name, birthdate, level of service and diagnoses before it is legitimate to bill.  Does anyone else have this problem?


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## Pam Brooks (Feb 24, 2015)

You can't bill the visit unless you see the documentation.  (not documented not done).  Arrange with the nursing home to get a copy to you, because a copy should be located within the patient's record at your office, anyway. 

I would never code based off a billing tool, without seeing an actual note. And no, this is not allowed in my organization.  They have to provide the documentation or it doesn't get billed out.


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## mlittle17@hotmail.com (Feb 24, 2015)

Thanks, Pam.  I have some documentation from the nursing home but it is only a hand-written notation in the chart which is inadequate as there is no format and all the elements are not there.  It is also illegible.


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## suemt (Mar 27, 2015)

Someone must be giving nursing home doctors bad advice, because I've seen the same thing a few times in the past several months!  If you come across any documentation or other information about which types of services are billable by the physician in a nursing home setting, please share!


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## LadyLon (Apr 20, 2017)

*How to bill a nursing home visit*

My doctor has seen a patient before at a previous facility, who has moved to a different facility and this is the initial visit at the current facility.  Can he bill this as a new patient?  My next question is he has seen "Sally" in the ICF level of care but she is now on the skilled unit and he is seeing her for the initial visit to the SNF unit.  Is this a new problem to his established patient or is she a new patient because the SNF is billed as a different POS.  Thanks for any help you can give me!

Malonne Jacobi


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