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Otolaryngology Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Dodge Jail Time By Following Incident To Billing Rules

Published on Tue Nov 22, 2011

Question: Can we bill under the physician even if she's not in the office when the speech language pathologist (SLP) performs video strobe or therapy service? Our SLP has no credential with some insurance companies. Will the insurance companies reimburse the SLP's service even without "supervision"?Colorado SubscriberAnswer: It all depends upon the payer. Keep in mind that to bill something you did not do -- in this case a service (70371, Complex dynamic pharyngeal and speech evaluation by cine or video recording) under a physician's name who did not perform the service and was not even present in the office -- would be fraudulent. However, this practice is quite common for non physician practitioners (NPPs) because the payers don't want to credential them.What to do: It's safer to get each payer's ruling on this matter in writing to avoid potential problems. For instance, you should find out from each payer if they [...]
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