Wiki Administration of Herpes Zoster Vaccine

[RDUFORT]

Hello,

Our physician is administering the herpes zoster vaccine. Is this billable to Medicare for services in 2008? The administration code G0377 for 2007 no longer exists. Can we bill 90471 to Medicare or do we bill the patient and they bill their part D plan?? Is this information available anywhere?

Could really use some help.
Thanks
Roxanne

 

[rthames052006]

Hello,

Our physician is administering the herpes zoster vaccine. Is this billable to Medicare for services in 2008? The administration code G0377 for 2007 no longer exists. Can we bill 90471 to Medicare or do we bill the patient and they bill their part D plan?? Is this information available anywhere?

Could really use some help.
Thanks
Roxanne

You can bill it to medicare but they don't cover it, you'd need to have the pt sign an medicare waiver and let them know in advance that it is not a covered service. There are some Medigap plans that do cover it, I for a fact that Tricare covers it and I've seen Federal Blue Shield pay for it too.

I am not sure about the part d, I've talked to our Merck rep about it and she said it would be covered under the part D but you know how info from the rep's pushing the stuff are.

We even talked to one of the pharmacies about it, but they don't recommend us giving the pt a script for it because the vaccine must be kept at a certain temperature. The pharmacy we called is not even 5 minutes away from our office and they don't trust that it would be safe that way.