Home Health & Hospice Week

Physicians must turn to Medicare for payment, Q&A says.

If you cave in to physicians' demands for payment for documentation required by Medicare, you could be courting fraud and abuse charges.

Docs are not permitted to charge home health agencies an "administrative fee," such as $25, to complete the patient's face-to-face documentation, HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor Palmetto GBA says in a newly posted question-and-answer set from its April 10 Ask the Contractor Teleconference (ACT).

Law requires that "the certifying physician must document that he or she or an allowed non-physician practitioner (NPP) had a face-to-face encounter with the patient in order to establish an effective home health treatment plan, i.e. physician's orders, for the patient's current condition," Palmetto explains. "There is no separate Medicare payment for this service."

"The physician would need to look to Medicare Part B for payment consideration for services provided during the visit encounter," Palmetto adds on its website.