Well, I hope I don't open a can of worms on the ethics and morals of charging for transfer of records, although more and more I ma having problems with my staff's taking time and effort to transfer records to keep up with the doctor shoppers. Certainly, comments on that good or bad would be welcome.
But, I am writing here, because no one locally (my biller, my office manager or my practice consultant) seems to know, and I as a ignorant to all this physician don't even know what BC/BS considers a physician ID. My NPI and UPIn didn't seem to work nor did my Tax ID number.
Anyway, the issue is some insurance's participation agreements prohibit charging the patient for records under any circumstances. Medicaid, for one, does. (Certainly not a suprise). I am guessing that I have a participation agreement or I have signed some type of contract with every insurance provider which would cover all things pertinent to interactions with patients. Unfortunately, I do not know where to look for this agreement. I have gone online and, because I don't know what numbers BC/BS is asking for, I can't sign in. I can't find these agreements in my office, and I am embarrassed to say my managers don't know where they are.
My other huge question pertains to insurance companies such as BC/BS. A lot of my patients have BC/BS, but some are BC/BS Connecticut, some are Texas and some are Maine, etc. Do I have one contract with BC/BS overall or do I have a different one with each state? I must be credentialed with each.
Just to be clear, this is only in reference to the copying and faxing or mailing of records to patient transfers and not for consultants or other reasons such as patients in my practice just wanting a copy of his or her record.
