Billing for a priest

[armymomryan]

I know all hospitals have priest available, but - how do they bill for them, is there a specific code that would be used? How would you bill for "spiritual guidance"?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jmcpolin]

Don't they have some sort of contract with the hospital if they even get payment for anything. I would think that a priest would volunteer this time.

 

[armymomryan]

Well I did find a code for pastoral counseling (94.49) but that would be for the hospital and put on a UB04, I need a 5 digit CPT code for a CMS 1500, looking into the counseling codes but haven't found anything yet

 

[jmcpolin]

hmm I have had a priest visit me in the hospital and I just assumed he was being nice lol

 

[mcote]

I would assume the priest is not offering a medical service and therefore cannot bill. Would a priest even have an NPI number to bill with?

 

[armymomryan]

No, the bill/claim would not be from the priest, he gets paid by the provider, just as in a hospital setting the hospitals do pay for the services, I am looking for the CPTcode to use for the provider to get reimbursed on the CMS 1500, just as the hospital gets reimburesed by billing the 94.49 on their UB04 form.

 

[jmcpolin]

I don't think any insurance company is going to reimburse a physician for employing a priest.

 

[mitchellde]

If the priest is not an employee of the physician that is billing then you cannot bill for his services in any way.

 

[jmcpolin]

Hi Debra, I was hoping for your response, I have never heard of such a thing, but what if the priest is on the physicians payroll?

 

[mitchellde]

If the priest is on the provider's payroll the church may have an issue with this. BUT. If it were true he would bill it the same as any other qualified person rendering a service per a physician order. In other words incident to with possibly a 99211 or a code from the medicine section for counseling.

 

[mmorningstarcpc]

I would think that if the priest is an employee of the physician, and not providing a medical service, he would be treated like any other employee. Meaning, you would not bill for his services. In 30 years, I have never heard of this situation.

 

[armymomryan]

What if the priest is brought in as a consultant?

 

[mitchellde]

you cannot bill his services if he is not your employee. The patient could go to the church and get the same counseling for free. For your office to bill for services rendered the person rendering the service must be either the physician or an employee of the physician. If the Priest wants to bill for this he will have to do it on his own thru the church. Did your physician have to pay the priest to come to the office?