Home Forums Discussions Problems Documenting/Billing Missed Appointments

Hi all! I've been test-driving AC for a few weeks and have encountered this issue and can't seem to find a solution in any of the support resources.

As a solo-practice psychiatrist, I bill my patients for appointments that they miss without providing me with advance notice. Obviously, insurers don't pay for these missed appointments.

Does anyone have any advice on what would be the optimal way of (1) documenting missed appointments in AC so that (2) a charge is also generated in a manner that (3) the charge is transmitted from AC to a billing software program?

Thanks--Greg

I document the no show on the regular progress note in the Chief complaint section. It makes it very easy to find. I don't link as yet to a billing service/program, but I would think you could document the 90862, No show and change the fee to whatever your no show fee is.

90862 is a pharmacutical management code. Since no interaction occurred that could be construed as fraud and then the insurance might pay some trivial amount.

To charge them you would have to use a made up code (MAF1.) It will be rejected by the insurance company and be billed to the patient.

This can be done by a note above or by an addendum which will allow you to create a superbill.

Since the superbill has been created, it will be forwarded no differently than any other created charge to your biller.

We do not send codes to the biller. We call the patient before and remind that <24 hour notice is subject to a fee. We selectively call after missed appointments and let them know that they cannot return OR SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT without paying the fee. A yellow sticky is put in the chart (via demographics)

That is a good point, but sending the bill to the insurance company seems like a waste. It would go to the patient. We basically keep track of it and charge the no show fee when they come back for an appointment, or send the bill to them.

In our office we note the missed appointment fees in two different places in the patients chart.
One is in the yellow post it on the patient demographic page, the other is noted when we send the missed scheduled appointment to their chart.
When the patient calls to schedule/reschedule an appt., it pops up when we open their chart.
Patients are informed of their fee and reminded of our office policy,(that they are required to pay this fee at the time of their next visit.}
I don't send this fee to my billing service, as insurance will not pay for missed appt. fees.
We have not had any problems collecting these fees.

I actually generate an invoice and send it to the patient. It is also listed in the sticky note on AC.

I think that this was along the lines of what I'm asking. However, I can't figure out how to add a custom billing code (such as your MAF1) in AC. I'd like to be able to generate an encounter note that documents the missed appointment, save the encounter, have AC attach a charge to that encounter, then transmit the charge to a billing program that adds the charge to the patient's bill in such a fashion that the patient is aware of their financial responsibility while also allowing the insurer to recognize that it is a non-billable charge.

Greg,

Go to View and choose Codes (or hit F12). In the box that opens, the only menu item in the upper left hand corner is "Edit Codes" ad its self explanatory from there.

Carla

Thanks Carla. The button was so small, I mistakenly thought that it was the name of the window and not a menu choice. Once I clicked on it, it was self explanatory. Again, many thanks.
Greg