Wiki Physician Billing when a patient is in a SNF

[jessica1974]

I have a question that I hope someone can answer. I work for a physician and we have received several refunds due to the patient being in a SNF. Do we bill the SNF for that patient's visit? Do we need to use another code? Or a different place of service? We've been refunding and sending a bill to the SNF. Is that correct? Thanks everyone

 

[thomas7331]

Physician services to patients in a SNF are payable but do need to be billed with the correct place of service code to ensure the correct payment rate (POS 31 or 32 depending on whether the patient is in a covered Part A inpatient stay). Non-physician services which would normally be reimbursed to you if done in the office (e.g. supplies, drugs, technical components of tests, and services performed by ancillary staff) are the responsibility of the facility, so if provided, those are the charges you would need to bill to the SNF.