Wiki After Hour Phone Calls

[sus008]

I bill for an IM physician in a rural area. It is a solo practice. He has started an "On Call" service for after hour calls and wanted to charge a fee for this service so his patients would only use it if really needed and not for refills like the calls he has had the last two evenings. I have heard of pediaticians doing this to offset the cost of an answering service. Does anyone have any experience with thiis?

 

[mitchellde]

there are codes for phone calls that you can use if the patient is the one placing the call, there is no restriction as to the time of day for these codes only that they must be a minimum of 5 minutes to be billable. Some insurances even pay for these. Look in you CPT book under 99441-99444.

 

[sus008]

He has alot of Medicare patients and uninsured. Should I bill Medicare first, even though they don't cover these charges, before passing them along to the patient?

 

[mitchellde]

I would, I have found some areas where Mcare has paid