READER QUESTIONS:
Prove Necessity Before Billing Pre-Op Visits
Published on Fri Oct 16, 2009
Question: Our nurse practitioner does all the pre-op visits and pre-op examinations for our physicians. She dictates the H&P for the surgery from this visit. We do not bill for the H&P from the hospital standpoint, but we would like to use this record to bill for the in-office pre-op visit and examination our nurse practitioner performs. Can we use a hospital H&P and print a copy for our records and bill an in-office visit from that? Missouri Subscriber Answer: Unless the office visit is medically necessary to re-evaluate a condition, such as diabetes or hypertension, that may affect the proposed surgery, you should not bill for the visit that's strictly for obtaining preop information. Your pre-op history and physical (H&P) becomes an "administrative" H&P, especially if your urologist made the decision for surgery at another encounter and as such this H&P is not a billable service. Reason: The surgery's [...]
