Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: We wanted to collect a $100 deposit for a self-pay patient prior to surgery, but another biller told me we'd be breaking the law if we collected any money up front. Is that true or can we collect a deposit?

New York Subscriber

Answer: Since the patient is a self pay -- there shouldn't be a legal reason why you cannot collect a deposit. If insurance or Medicaid were involved, the answer will be different. Whether you can collect a deposit from the patient before performing a surgery is a function of your payer contract that your physician has signed. If the contract does not exclude collecting co-pays and deductibles up front, you are perfectly legal in collecting the patient portion of the surgery before providing the service.

Exception: If your physician signed a contract that forbids this type of up-front collection, you would be violating the contract by collecting a pre-surgery deposit.

Lesson learned: This is why it is so important to read your contracts before signing them and why it is so important to have a copy of all of your signed contracts. That way, you can quickly and easily determine if there are any limitations or any privileges that you have as stated in the contract that affect your billing and collections procedures.