Home Forums Discussions Coding and Billing Billing Question - send charges ahead?

I have mixed thoughts about what I'm asking here, but the providers want to know.

I am less familiar with the flow for Providers when it comes to their end of charting and submitting the charges, and we use a billing company for billing so I hope this question doesn't sound too silly.

Our current flow is to:

Have the nurse room the patient, have the nurse start the chart, forward to the provider, the provider finishes it, including coding etc.

My question is - can you have the bill ready before signing off on the note? In other words, the provider wants to be able to submit the charges without having finished writing their note. Is this possible, or does the system stop that from happening?

The bill is based off of the documentation of the visit. Do not bill until the chart is completed. Not sure if the system will allow a printed bill without a chart.

I don't mean if the provider has no idea, I mean if the provider has coded it for charges, and simply writes lengthy notes. Like, she already knows exactly what she's gonna say. I personally hate this idea, but she wants to know if it is physically possible to release a bill without having finished the note.

The bill should only be generated AFTER the note has been signed off by the provider, indicating the diagnosis, what procedures or tests were done. How are you generating a bill or telling the billing company what was done BEFORE the note was completed.

Well, the providers generate their own bills. So, they know what they would be putting in there. She knows what diagnosis codes and cpt codes she would be using. It sounds like more of a 'that's bad practice' then a 'you cannot do that in the system' type of question.

I will not allow the biller to send in the visit for reimbursement until the chart is completed. I was taught to do so is "not legal" but may just have been a scare tactic for best practice. Good luck, seems like the provider has their mind made up.

Agree with ChrisFNP.
ACZ

Well we use a different program for billing so technically, yes, we could create a claim before the encounter note is signed off. But like others said, it's bad practice. We always wait for it to be signed off before billing.

So - I sorta.......just told her we couldn't. I hate the idea. It's really bad practice. So I just said no.