Practice Management Alert

Question: A patient came in to see one of the physicians in our practice. The doctor developed a care plan and asked the patient to come back in one week for re-evaluation. The patient saw our nurse practitioner at that follow-up visit. The physician was not in the office at the time. However, the physician assistant who practices the same specialty as the physician was in the office. Can we bill this service incident-to since the supervising provider works in the same group and specialty as the doctor who developed the care plan? Michigan Subscriber Answer: No, you cannot bill this service as incident-to the physician or the physician assistant (PA). CMS rules say that the supervising provider -- the PA in this case -- must have the same education level as the provider who set up the patient's plan of care. If another physician from the same specialty had been [...]