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General Surgery Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Let Payers Reduce Your Multiple Procedure Fees

Published on Sat Nov 28, 2009

Question: Are insurance companies allowed to reduce our fees for multiple procedures performed during the same session? If so, should I be reducing the fee before sending the claim? California Subscriber Answer: Many payers, including Medicare, follow a reduced fee policy for multiple procedures performed during the same operative session. Generally, the policy looks something like this: • Procedure 1 is paid at 100 percent of the allowable • Procedure 2 is paid at 50 percent of the allowable • Procedure 3 is paid at 25 percent of the allowable (for some payers) and 50 percent of the allowable (for some payers). Important: Even if the payer follows a multiple procedure reduction policy, you should not reduce the fee before you send your claim. Let the payer reduce the fee. You don't want to reduce your fee and then have the payer reduce it again. Hint: If you need to [...]
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