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Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Billing Strategies:

Heed 3 Caveats When Writing Off Patient Balances

Published on Fri Mar 25, 2011

Case study helps you steer clear of audit pitfalls.Being a compassionate, caring practice is a great thing, but if you're letting patients off the payment hook, your compassion could land you on your payer's and the Attorney General's bad side. Find out if you know the bottom line when it comes to writing off patient balances by taking a look at this case study.Scenario: Your physician sees several patients who were recently let go because a local company shut down. The doctor would like to continue to see those patients but would also like to waive their copayments and deductibles.Billing dilemma: The physician would like to send the patient two bills, but tell the patient to ignore them. Then, he wants you (the biller) to write off the "bad debt" after the second bill is sent out.Ensure you're not setting  yourself up for major troubles with these three tips.1. Avoid [...]
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