Wiki Billing for a portable ultrasound

[ccioffi]

Hi I need some assistance. A friend of mine is an ultrasound tech who is leasing a portable U/S machine. She brings the machine to various doctors offices who are planning on billing for the technical portion. My questions is twofold.... 1) since the tech leases the machine and the doctor doesn't own it, can the doctor bill for the technical portion and get paid by all carriers and 2) can the doctor bill an office visit with the ultrasound and get paid for both?

 

[csperoni]

This may be a sticky situation that you may want official legal advice on, it sounds like it might be pass-through billing which you would definitely want to avoid. https://www.physicianspractice.com/view/how-avoid-pass-through-billing-traps
For question 1 - Is the tech employed by the physician? The physician doesn't need to "own" the equipment, the physician may lease or rent it. But I believe the physician needs to be incurring an expense for the equipment and staff in order to bill -TC. Who is interpreting the scans and reporting?
For question 2 - If the physician is providing a medically necessary office visit, then yes, an E/M may be billed.
If the physician sees & evaluates patient Tuesday and orders the sono and has the patient return Thursday to have the scan done, then Thursday E/M is not billable unless there are other medically necessary services provided.
If the physician sees & evaluates patient Tuesday, orders scan and tech performs scan, then both E/M and sono are billable and you may get paid for both (assuming the determination from question 1 is that the physician may bill for the sonos).