We are about to become a multi-specialty practice, as we are joining with other specialists and internal medicine physicians.
So if our PA's, who see gastroenterology patients, are asked to see a patient for the first time by one of the internal medicine physicians, they cannot bill the visit as new? Even though the patient has never been seen by that speciality?
I thought the rule was:
"a new patient is "a patient who has not received any professional services from the physician/qualified health care professional or another physician/qualified health care professional of the exact same specialty and subspecialty who belongs to the same group practice within the past three years."
So wouldn't this mean the patient, referred by the PCP to the Gastroenterology PA, be considered new?