Inpatient Facility Coding & Compliance Alert

Question: Our facility performs a MRSA screening on every patient. Can we charge Medicare patients for this if we don't have an order?
Answer: The correct answer depends on the circumstances. If you have a standing order from a particular physician to run the screening on a certain patient (or on all of his patients), you can bill the screening. A standing order can take the place of a physical order in the patient's hand.
That's not the case, however, if the screenings are for all patients because of hospital policy or protocol. The facility can run the test, but cannot bill anyone for it unless the patient needs the test for a medically necessary reason and has a specific physician order for it.