Wiki Billing Ins. only for drug screens

[123smile4me@gmail.com]

Hi I work at an OB GYN office and my doc is wanting to run urine drug screenings on Ob patients when they have an initial Ob visit to begin there pregnancy.. The physician would like these to be done as insurance only so it can be determined if there may be an issue with a pregnant patient or not The physician doesnt want to inform the pts but if there are any positives then she would order a blood test. Is this okay to do if we did insurance only on all pts for this type of service and not bill any pts at all any balance for the test.. Any advice or if anyone can shed some light on this matter would be great Thanks

 

[armen]

Hi I work at an OB GYN office and my doc is wanting to run urine drug screenings on Ob patients when they have an initial Ob visit to begin there pregnancy.. The physician would like these to be done as insurance only so it can be determined if there may be an issue with a pregnant patient or not The physician doesnt want to inform the pts but if there are any positives then she would order a blood test. Is this okay to do if we did insurance only on all pts for this type of service and not bill any pts at all any balance for the test.. Any advice or if anyone can shed some light on this matter would be great Thanks

First of all there is no way you can hide this from patient, because they will receive an EOB. Second, it is not OK to do any kind of procedure and bill insurance only. Patients are obligated to pay their portion to you based on their contract with insurance. The Office of the Inspector General and the Department of Health and Human Services have issued fraud alerts, which indicate the practice of professional courtesy is illegal. The waiver of co-pays, deductibles, patient balances, or the entire service, as well as “insurance only” billing may be considered illegal by the government. Violations are punishable by civil and criminal penalties. In addition, “insurance only” billing is seen by the insurance industry as fraud.

 

[123smile4me@gmail.com]

Thank you for sharing.