Wiki Ending Care

[Jarts]

Can care be ended on a Medicare patient for non-payment of bill? We normally send our patients a letter explaining there care is ended but I'm not sure if we can do this with Medicare patients? She is NOT in the middle of any type of care by our doctor.

Julie

 

[fredabrinson]

I do not recall ever seeing anything that would prevent a Medicare patient from being discharged from a practice. Medicare does require us to collect patient balances, so it would stand to reason that discharging a Medicare patient for nonpayment would also be acceptable.

This is just my "opinion" and should be taken that way!

 

[Jarts]

Thanks, Freda. Your opinion was correct!! I was finally able to confirm directly with medicare that we can end care due to non-payment as long as we sent them an end of care letter giving them 30 days to find a new physician. They did indicate that if during those 30 days, the pt needed to be seen for an emergency, we were required to see them.