Wiki Doctor indicates "No Charge" E/M visit

[skrautkramer]

Can anyone tell me what the billing and coding guidelines are on "no charge" visits and where to find them? For example, if a doctor sees a patient to discuss a few things and they write "no charge" on the encounter and the office staff tell the patient there is no charge for the day, can the billing staff then still decide to code and bill the office E/M visit? Are there guidelines indicating that this should be billed?

 

[SharonCollachi]

I would consider it to be very bad office policy for the billing staff to bill a visit after the patient was told there was no charge.

You can code a zero-dollar visit and not bill it, for record-keeping purposes.

 

[csperoni]

I agree with Sharon. I would not bill it after the patient was told it would not be billed. Why would the billing staff override the provider's decision? You may want to discuss with the provider if this is not just a very occasional situation. Most offices create an internal code for this scenario.