Hey, everybody!
I was at the Seattle regional conference (such fun, so educational, hope to go to a national someday!) and for the most part I was able to take away everything I learned and find sources to support what I was told. However, there's one thing that I learned from one of the presentations that's been lingering in my head and I can't find any documentation to support it.
In one of the presentations, it was put out that anybody, not just a doctor, nurse, or other "medical professional" can perform a supplemental AWV, since all that's happening is that documentation is being updated and no plans are being made. Since there's no "clinical work" performed, it doesn't need to be a clinician who provides the service, it just has to be someone "the supervising physician trusts to take the information down correctly."
This has caused a lot of confusion when I mentioned it to people at my practice, and when I look at the CMS guidelines, it doesn't SAY that it has to be a specific person to perform the service, but it does state that "Medicare Part B covers an AWV if performed by" and gives a list of individuals.
Either I'm misreading something and anybody can perform the service but Medicare only covers it if a specific type of provider performs it, or NOT anybody can perform the service, and since the AWV is a Medicare-specific service, why would you provide it if you can't bill Medicare for it?
Thank you all so much for the assistance!
Erik Bell
I was at the Seattle regional conference (such fun, so educational, hope to go to a national someday!) and for the most part I was able to take away everything I learned and find sources to support what I was told. However, there's one thing that I learned from one of the presentations that's been lingering in my head and I can't find any documentation to support it.
In one of the presentations, it was put out that anybody, not just a doctor, nurse, or other "medical professional" can perform a supplemental AWV, since all that's happening is that documentation is being updated and no plans are being made. Since there's no "clinical work" performed, it doesn't need to be a clinician who provides the service, it just has to be someone "the supervising physician trusts to take the information down correctly."
This has caused a lot of confusion when I mentioned it to people at my practice, and when I look at the CMS guidelines, it doesn't SAY that it has to be a specific person to perform the service, but it does state that "Medicare Part B covers an AWV if performed by" and gives a list of individuals.
Either I'm misreading something and anybody can perform the service but Medicare only covers it if a specific type of provider performs it, or NOT anybody can perform the service, and since the AWV is a Medicare-specific service, why would you provide it if you can't bill Medicare for it?
Thank you all so much for the assistance!
Erik Bell