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Wiki No authorization for Physician Services while Patient was Inpatient

orthobiller2017

Networker
Messages
45
Location
East Northport, NY
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If the hospital received an authorization for admission shouldnt that cover the physician services (ie surgery)? we keep receiving denials from UHC where patient was admitted but the surgery codes themselves were not on the auth and therefore denied. appeals rarely overturn the denial. It was not elective surgery in that patient's were admitted via ED room etc.
Any recourse?
 
If the hospital received an authorization for admission shouldnt that cover the physician services (ie surgery)? we keep receiving denials from UHC where patient was admitted but the surgery codes themselves were not on the auth and therefore denied. appeals rarely overturn the denial. It was not elective surgery in that patient's were admitted via ED room etc.
Any recourse?

Is there any chance that the inpatient authorization was denied and the hospital converted it to an observation stay?
 
If the hospital received an authorization for admission shouldnt that cover the physician services (ie surgery)? we keep receiving denials from UHC where patient was admitted but the surgery codes themselves were not on the auth and therefore denied. appeals rarely overturn the denial. It was not elective surgery in that patient's were admitted via ED room etc.
Any recourse?
Did the procedures that are being denied require prior authorization themselves? An approved PA for an inpatient admission, assuming that it was not converted from IP to OBS, would only be for the IP admission and doesn't necessarily include all procedures performed.
 
The IP stay was authorized. The later is the issue, the surgical codes werent called in or linked. We are encouraging MD's to notify their offices so separate auths can be called in but it is an uphill battle
 
The IP stay was authorized. The later is the issue, the surgical codes werent called in or linked. We are encouraging MD's to notify their offices so separate auths can be called in but it is an uphill battle
We are on trauma call at our local hospital and we bill our surgery charges under the hospital's authorization number and just mark the claims emergent. We haven't had any issues with getting our claims paid by other insurance companies. We terminated our contracts with UHC so we rarely have to deal with them anymore.
 
If the hospital received an authorization for admission shouldnt that cover the physician services (ie surgery)? we keep receiving denials from UHC where patient was admitted but the surgery codes themselves were not on the auth and therefore denied. appeals rarely overturn the denial. It was not elective surgery in that patient's were admitted via ED room etc.
Any recourse?
What state are you in?

I billed trauma for 4 years UHC was a nightmare. Emergent services do not require authorization. If it’s UHC Community Plan, then they were and probably still are awful! I had to file hundreds of State Fair Hearings citing Arizona laws (Arizona Revised Statutes and Arizona Administrative Code) for emergent services after they denied the appeal. Never had to attend a State Fair Hearing. They always called the day before to let me know the claim would be paid. If it’s a commercial or Medicare Advantage plan, then a phone call requesting the claim be sent back for review almost always resolved the issue.

Notification/prior authorization is not required for emergency or urgent care.
 
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