Wiki Hearing Impaired Interpreter Cost

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OBcoder2017

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We have a deaf patient coming in and have been told that we are required by law to provide an interpreter for her. She is an OB patient and will be coming to our practice for 9 months. The interpreter cost is around $40 an hour. Is there a HCPCS code to bill for the interpreter services?
Thank you for any input on this matter.
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For us it's non-English speakers. I looked into it and found that we are required by the American's with Disabilities Act to pay for these services. For us it's a $70 minimum! They charge us $20 to make a phone call too, to change an appointment or answer a question. Unfortunately most of these patients are Medicare/Medicaid and I'll be surprised if we can bill for these services.
 
Hearing Impaired and Language Interpreters

You may want to contact your state medical societies for advice on state regulations. There are a couple of good articles on the ADA requirements at http://medicaleconomics.modernmedic...peaking-patients-are-you-required-0?page=full and http://medicaleconomics.modernmedic...ng-disability-rules-hearing-impaired-patients. These discuss possible alternative compliance and/or recovery of loss (tax deduction, insurance coverage). They also offer good perspective on the impact to your practice based on the volume of services your practice delivers. Marketing materials from some interpretation services often lead to higher expense (in-person interpreter charging service and travel vs. telephone service) than the patient may require.
Hope that is helpful.
 
This isn't going to be a popular response, but if the practice is paying by the hour, I'm sure the patient will be seen quickly! It is truly amazing to me how many practices regularly have very long waits. I can see once in a while when there is an emergency, but for some it is an SOP!
 
Wow Sue, you're right. Not a popular opinion. And for the record, no one is put ahead of anyone else because of their so-called entitlement.
We pay about $140 for the privilege of seeing a patient for a ~$75 Medicare reimbursement.
 
If you haven't already, go ahead and check with the patient's insurance plan to see if they will pay for these services. I know that Texas Medicaid will supply a deaf interpreter--the physician pays for the service and then is reimbursed by Medicaid according to the guidelines. It has to be their interpreter though. The code is T1013U1 for medicaid.

the cost of the interpreter is tax deductible if all else fails.(and cheaper than a lawsuit)
 
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