Wiki NP on maternity leave with unsigned notes. Can her supervising sign?

SUN1633

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We have a NP who went on maternity leave before signing her office visit notes. We are being asked in this circumstance, can her normal supervising provider sign off? We are saying no. Are we correct in stating only the actual provider who saw the patient is able to sign the notes for billing? (This is not an incident-to situation). TIA.
 
You are correct that only the provider who rendered the service may sign off.
This occurs sometimes if a provider unexpectedly passes away, and those visits do not get billed.
I would suggest politely asking the NP if she is willing to log on remotely just to sign off.
 
You are correct that only the provider who rendered the service may sign off.
This occurs sometimes if a provider unexpectedly passes away, and those visits do not get billed.
I would suggest politely asking the NP if she is willing to log on remotely just to sign off.
In your opinion, if 2 months have passed from the DOS, with no response of a signature from provider on leave, (they were made aware) how would you proceed in this case? Is this a total loss at this point?
 
In your opinion, if 2 months have passed from the DOS, with no response of a signature from provider on leave, (they were made aware) how would you proceed in this case? Is this a total loss at this point?
Signatures are supposed to be timely. 2 months is clearly not timely, but there is an extenuating circumstance in this one time situation.
If the note is signed now (2 months post DOS), I would still file, especially since this is not simply a habitual non-compliant provider.
My current unofficial policy is if the provider has not signed by 30 days, I post a "no charge" code to clear off open encounters. After the 30 days have passed, I don't even look again to see if/when it has been signed as it no longer even appears on my worklist.
This is all from a billing/coding perspective. I'm sure legal/compliance might have other opinions.
 
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