I am hoping someone can help me with this one.
I did an audit of a provider and discovered they had a NP student in the office a couple days a week seeing patients. I told them we can not bill for services provided by a student and we need to refund anything that was paid on these services that were blind billed as if the doctor provided the service.
My doctor was ok with this, another doctor in the office (different practice they just share the same space) jumped all over me last week about this. He told me that I was costing them a lot of money and don't know what I am talking about. He states that NP students are the same as residents.
My thoughts, which I somehow managed to keep to myself, are if you want to commit fraud that is on you, but any doctor working for us is going to follow the rules. I have teaching physicians, I have a lot of residents. I do not have NP students and I do not know all the ins and outs to what they can and can not do. The CMS guidelines seem pretty clear in that anyone still classified as a student can not be treated the same as a resident. Is there anything else out there that states otherwise? I have emailed the AANP but have not received a response yet.
Thanks
Laura, CPC, CPMA, CEMC
I did an audit of a provider and discovered they had a NP student in the office a couple days a week seeing patients. I told them we can not bill for services provided by a student and we need to refund anything that was paid on these services that were blind billed as if the doctor provided the service.
My doctor was ok with this, another doctor in the office (different practice they just share the same space) jumped all over me last week about this. He told me that I was costing them a lot of money and don't know what I am talking about. He states that NP students are the same as residents.
My thoughts, which I somehow managed to keep to myself, are if you want to commit fraud that is on you, but any doctor working for us is going to follow the rules. I have teaching physicians, I have a lot of residents. I do not have NP students and I do not know all the ins and outs to what they can and can not do. The CMS guidelines seem pretty clear in that anyone still classified as a student can not be treated the same as a resident. Is there anything else out there that states otherwise? I have emailed the AANP but have not received a response yet.
Thanks
Laura, CPC, CPMA, CEMC