Wiki Fracture Care & DME Equipment

Sueedwards

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I have a question:

A patient came in the ER with a fracture. The physician is treating with fracture care and applying a splint.

Now if the ER has DME Equipment, which on the splint it includes the application with the supply....

Is it double charging if I give my doctor the fracture care?

Thanks, Sue
 
The way we do it here (in a small rural hospital) is: we charge the appropriate E&M level and that is it. I use 3M and the walk thru asks if it is the intial provider or one who provides the aftercare as well. For the DME, all out of the box splints & casts we don't charge the splinting application on.

Does that even make sense??
 
Splint and Supply

Facility Charge would be for the splint and the orthoglass (in our case) used.
We would also charge an E/M level.

I believe the MD charge would be for the CTX with -54 and E/M level, if appropriate, with a referral to an Ortho MD.
 
As An orthopedic tech now taking and having to code in a clinical setting, if the fracture care is coded the only charge for DME is the cost of the brace, now if the patient was put in a post mold or temporary type splint, you can charge for the splint and fracture care. Also keep in mind there would be a charge for reduction if this was done in the ER. hope this helps.
Bonecoder!
 
Thank you for your remarks!

Thanks everyone... the remarks are great and seeing how other facilities work with the DME is interesting....
 
Regarding facility billing, my facility has always charged for the splint and application by RNs. I don't agree to charging for the "off the shelf product" and application without modification. I cannot find information/guidelines to state if the charging should be for one, the other or both. Can anyone provide clarification?
 
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