Home Health Billing

[chavera]

Hello,

I work for a family practice doctor who has patients that are in nursing homes. We receive the home health certifications and the doctor signs off on it. My question is how should the doctor bill for his service in regards to the date? Should he send out the charge with the date he signed off on or the date the patients' certification period began?

Thanks

[tdml97@yahoo.com]

From my understanding - you can use either

For record keeping - it might be easier to use start date.

[sophiaz8]

Per Medicare guidelines the date the provider signs the document is use for the DOS. I bill for a group of physicians that all they do is travel to the different assisted and nursing care facilities to see there patient. I bill for the home health certifications that they sign off on, often. Each certification period can only be billed once every 60 days so if the physician signs the form on the 59th day the claim will deny as a duplicate. I would keep a copy of the form in the pt records for future references.

[t_ferg07@yahoo.com]

From my previous experience and conversations with Medicare, use the start date as the DOS. My issue was I had a patient that passed away before the doctor signed it, I used his signed date as the DOS, and Medicare denied it. When I spoke with a rep in the customer service department she advised me to use the start date to avoid issues like this in the future.

Hope that helps!