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Practice Management Alert

You Be the Billing Expert:

Copays With No Billable Service

Published on Wed Sep 08, 2010

Question: Can we collect a copay from a patient on a postoperative follow-up visit which is not billed to the insurance?Arizona SubscriberAnswer: No. You cannot collect a copay for a follow-up visit that you are not billing to the insurance company. You aren't billing the service to the payer because it is included in the postoperative care for the procedure. That means you should not be charging the patient for the visit either. Routine postoperative follow-up care is included in the surgical fee and there are no charges (including copays) to the patient for routine postoperative care during the global period.
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