Wiki Can a social worker be incident-to a Nurse Practitioner?

[KenSchae]

We have a Nurse Practitioner run mental health practice. Is it possible to have counseling services provided by a social worker or an NCC that are billed incident-to the NP? Assuming that the NP has seen the patient, documented the counseling as part of the care plan, in the office, etc. at the time of the counseling session.

In the case of commercial insurance where the contracts are not clear on the matter, what is your suggestion for who to contact about whether the commercial plans allow this?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Pam Warren]

Licensed clinical social workers are generally able to be credentialed by payers. Billing incident-to is a Medicare concept, and will reduce your payment. I'd go that route, rather than expecting to have to follow incident-to guidelines.