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Anesthesia Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Check Your Contracts for Collections Advice

Published on Mon Sep 06, 2010

Question: We wanted to collect a $100 deposit for a self-pay patient prior to surgery, but another biller told me we'd be breaking the law if we collected any money up front. Is that true or can we collect a deposit? New York SubscriberAnswer: Since the patient is a self pay -- there shouldn't be a legal reason why you cannot collect a deposit. If insurance or Medicaid were involved, the answer will be different. Whether you can collect a deposit from the patient before performing a surgery is a function of your payer contract that your physician has signed. If the contract does not exclude collecting co-pays and deductibles up front, you are perfectly legal in collecting the patient portion of the surgery before providing the service. Exception: If your physician signed a contract that forbids this type of up-front collection, you would be violating the contract by collecting a [...]
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