Gastroenterology Coding Alert

Question: In our hospital, a patient may need to visit various healthcare professionals as well as the physician, and obtain different services on the same day. What are the things that the physician should keep in mind while documenting, so that the services can be billed under the physician’s name?

Texas Subscriber

Answer: This phenomenon is known as “split shared billing” in a hospital system. For a physician to bill for the services, a major portion of the documentation, including the history taking, exam, and decision making should be documented by the physician. It will not suffice if the other health care professional does all the documenting, and the physician just signs it off.

If the physician is not able to perform the documentation as per CMS standards, he may not bill the services under his name.