Wiki Billing PA-C IR Consults

[DCOGLE]

I am wondering if anyone knows if a PA-C is doing an IR consult, does the physician need to do an attestation on the report or is it ok to bill out if only signed by the PA-C?

I have not found anywhere that is REQUIRED for the doctor to sign but am trying to cover bases to be sure.

Thank you for the help in advance

 

[csperoni]

I believe the answer depends on a couple of factors.
1) Are you billing under the PA or physician?
2) Is this office based and you are considering billing under incident to? Or inpatient and you are using split/shared rules?
3) A lot of us cringe at the word "consult." To a clinician, consult simply means another doctor asked you to see a patient. For coders, consult has rather specific requirements (3R - request, render & reply) which all must be properly documented. Unfortunately, the overuse/abuse of coding consults has lead to Medicare (and most other insurances) no longer even acknowledging their existence.
4) Facility policy (and sometimes state law) dictates whether PAs and NPs may perform certain services independently, or only under direct supervision.