Recognize Incident-To Services or Pay the Price
Published on Mon Feb 23, 2009
Hint: Doctor's schedule will be the key. Under incident-to rules, qualified nonphysician practitioners (NPPs) can treat certain patients and still bill the visit under the doctor's National Provider Identifier (NPI), bringing in 100 percent of the assigned fee for the codes reported. Just make sure you've got the rules down pat before you bill. On-site requirement: To bill certain services incident-to, the physician must be present in the office and be immediately available for assistance, consultation, or patient emergencies, should they arise, though not necessarily seeing the patient. "If the insurer ever audits your charts, the insurer can look at the doctor's schedule on the date of the incident- toservice," says Heather Corcoran with CGH Billing in Louisville, Ky. "If the doctor was out of the office and your NPP billed incident-to services that required his presence in the office, your insurer will have a lot of questions for you." [...]