Reader Question: Oncology

Question: I am developing a form for our hospital-based oncology clinics by which they can assess which level of clinic visit is appropriate to charge under the new ambulatory payment classification (APC) guidelines. Can you direct me to some resources to help develop this form? I have examples of forms that EDs have used, but havent seen anything for hematology/oncology clinics.

Mary Cohen
Durham, N.C.

Answer: The problem is that there are no guidelines from the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) concerning how to assign levels for clinic visits other than that each hospital must come up with its own system which should reflect facility resources used.

Because there are no guidelines, facilities are all struggling with this issue. Some facilities have formalized a statement that they will tie the clinic level to the physician level reported simply because their billing systems will not allow them to do otherwise at this time.


- Published on 2000-10-01