Originally Posted by lstrouse
He had no idea that billing Medicare patients for phone calls was illegal
Hey folks, it has been okay to bill Medicare patients for phone calls or emails since January 2008. Medicare does not pay anything for these (and never has) but it has codes now (99441-99444) to report these encounters. The patients don't need to have signed an ABN form, since Medicare essentially treats this as an out-of pocket expense. You can't charge if the patient is seen within the next 24 hrs for a face-to-face encounter, or if the "non-face-to-face service" is provided in the seven days following a face-to-face visit. There is a good summary at: http://www.acpinternist.org/archives/2008/04/ten.htm

Another question that comes up with Medicare patients is charging for missed appointments. This is also "legal", as you can read here: http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/...ctice-management/20080131missedappt.html

John
Internal Medicine