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Practice Management Alert

Payer Updates:

Go Ahead and Skip Annual Wellness Visits If You Bill to WPS

Published on Tue Apr 12, 2011

If you've decided your practice doesn't have the resources to offer annual wellness visits (AWVs), you aren't legally required to perform them. That's the word from WPS Medicare, a Part B payer in four Midwestern states, which presented a March AWV conference.WPS Medicare started off the call by reminding providers that the initial AWV (G0438) is a one-time benefit per patient and the subsequent AWV (G0439) can only be reported once a year, so Medicare will deny the claim if you report the code outside of the allowable timeline, and the patient would be responsible for payment."You want to be having conversations with your patient concerning whether these services have been provided by someone else," said WPS's Ellen Berra during the call. "This provides a protection for your patient in that they won't have to pay for the bill, but also protection for your office in that you won't have [...]
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