Wiki PORT INSERTION BY NURSE

cherylbr

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Here is the scenario:

Patient sent to our office in distress. Doctor examined the patient in the office and found the pt to have very highly increasing ocular pressure. Pt was then sent over to the ambulatory surgery center and a RN placed a port and medication was then administered with iv.
Is the placement of the port and meds, by the RN, a billable service?
Should we only be billing for the office visit that day? Can we bill for both the office visit performed by the Dr. & port placement by the RN? If so, is a modifier warrented?

Thank you,
Cheryl
 
I'd need some clarification to be able to answer your questions, and I'm not sure about your terminology here. A port placement is a procedure that is usually performed by a general surgeon - this isn't something an RN can do. And when you ask 'can we bill', are you billing for the doctor's office, or the surgery center, or both? The doctor can certainly bill for the office visit if the documentation supports it. Anything done at the surgery center can only be billed by the facility though, unless the physician also did any kind of procedure as well. Are you able to provide more details?
 
I have been finding more and more that "placed a port" is being used instead of "inserted an IV". I find this very troubling, and I'm not entirely sure why.
 
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