jan34562001
Guest
Can we schedule a nurse visit just to collect history and complete Risk assessment forms as a pre visit to the annual appointment?
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Wiki 99211
- Thread starter jan34562001
- Start date
The overarching criteria for any service is medical necessity. I think having the patient come in twice seems (at best) a stretch of medical necessity. This is really work that would be included in the annual well exam.
I would also be curious as to what diagnosis you think would be appropriate for that additional visit.
I advise against this practice.
I would also be curious as to what diagnosis you think would be appropriate for that additional visit.
I advise against this practice.
thomas7331
Guest
I agree, this sounds like something that is being done for convenience of the provider and not out of medical necessity. It is fine to do this, but I would recommend not charging for a separate visit.
Moreover, it doesn't sound to me like a good business practice and I think it's also a bad idea just from a customer service standpoint. Why would you ask a patient to make two separate trips to the office, and also take up the extra time of scheduling and office staff to handle two appointments instead of one? Some offices will mail the patient the forms ahead of time so they can fill them out in advance and have them ready when they arrive. Or perhaps have the nurse ask any questions on the phone ahead time. Either of those options would be much better than bringing in the patient just for this.
Moreover, it doesn't sound to me like a good business practice and I think it's also a bad idea just from a customer service standpoint. Why would you ask a patient to make two separate trips to the office, and also take up the extra time of scheduling and office staff to handle two appointments instead of one? Some offices will mail the patient the forms ahead of time so they can fill them out in advance and have them ready when they arrive. Or perhaps have the nurse ask any questions on the phone ahead time. Either of those options would be much better than bringing in the patient just for this.
Pam Warren
True Blue
What you're asking to do is to bill 'incident-to'. For Medicare, Medicaid and other government payers (as well as some commercial payers), there are some pretty well-published guidelines related to incident-to billing. I would strongly discourage your doing this, since you can't bill incident-to for a new patient, a new problem, a problem without a care plan and if the provider isn't in the office suite at the time. I agree with Christine that an appropriate diagnosis would be hard to come up with.
Why don't you send the forms to the patient prior to the preventive visit, or have them come in 1/2 hour early to complete them? If the reason for the visit is that your MA doesn't have time to data enter, this is probably a workflow and scheduling issue.
Why don't you send the forms to the patient prior to the preventive visit, or have them come in 1/2 hour early to complete them? If the reason for the visit is that your MA doesn't have time to data enter, this is probably a workflow and scheduling issue.
thranowski
Guru
To add to what others said, 99211 is an E&M code. There is no evaluation or management happening if an MA is just collecting information to add to the chart for the practice's own convenience.
jan34562001
Guest
Thank you all for your advice. 