Eli's Rehab Report

Reader Question:

NP Can Supervise Incident-To

Question: Our nurse practitioner (NP) normally sees our arthritis patients for follow-up visits. Yesterday the NP delegated this visit to an RN, who then billed the service (99212) incident-to using the NP's provider number. Does Medicare allow us to report incident-to when a physician wasn't involved or even present in the office?

Nebraska Subscriber

Answer: According to Section 2156 of the Medicare Carriers Manual, "If covered NP services are furnished, services and supplies furnished incident-to the services of the NP may also be covered if they would have been covered when furnished incident-to the services of an MD/DO as described in Section 2050." Therefore, you should treat the NP exactly as you would treat a physician: If the NP was on-site and ready to see the patient if a problem occurred, the RN can bill the service incident-to.

- You Be the Coder and Reader Questions were reviewed by Laureen Jandroep, OTR, CPC, CCS-P, CPC-H, CCS, director and senior instructor for the CRN Institute, an online coding certification training center.

 

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