working in surgeons office

[Guest guest]

I have a surgeon looking to employ our company for approximately 8-12

hours a week. He wants to bill insurance (fine with me as it is

impossible to get on the insurance companies!) but is unsure if it is

legal. He plans to see the patients to check weights/blood pressure. Is

anyone familiar with this> My understanding was that he can bill the

insurance for service but we can not " share " the fee, meaning he will

need to pay a straight hourly amount to us.

Please clarify, we really want to work with this surgeon and avoid

problems!

Thank you,

Aimee

[Guest guest]

Sounds good to me, Kathy. Someone on the list mention that fee splitting was

not legal. I think that what ever you do regarding the salary decision is keep

in mind that each insurance plan reimburses the MD differently. I take the the

full amount that insurance reimburses but this is my practice also. I am CEO and

the MD is Medical Director. One thing to remember is the MD's overhead costs

and if the practice is using a billing service. The amount of insurance varies

depending on the MDs speciality. A RD should get this salary advantage when

seeing the more complicated cases. A MD/RD partnership is the way to go since

right now we do not get reimbursed in so many cases. This is were the MDs and

the Chiropractors are so ahead of us. I thinks a 60/40 would be very fair.

Even a 70/30 would be fair because the MD most of the time never has to see the

patient when you see the patient. The patients do better with the increased

care/visits.

www.mdrdtherapy.com www.irresistiblestones.com

working in surgeons office

I have a surgeon looking to employ our company for approximately 8-12

hours a week. He wants to bill insurance (fine with me as it is

impossible to get on the insurance companies!) but is unsure if it is

legal. He plans to see the patients to check weights/blood pressure. Is

anyone familiar with this> My understanding was that he can bill the

insurance for service but we can not " share " the fee, meaning he will

need to pay a straight hourly amount to us.

Please clarify, we really want to work with this surgeon and avoid

problems!

Thank you,

Aimee

[Guest guest]

Sounds like a great plan to me. Best,

www.mdrdtherapy.com www.irresistiblestones.com

Re: Fw: working in surgeons office

I go into a gastroenterology office once a month to see patients. After our

visit, the doctor comes into the room to give a " hands on " examination, asks a

couple of questions to the parent/patient about the visit, then signs the

billing. He will also do the dictation (from my notes). The office keeps the

co-pays, I get what ever the insurance pays for the office visit. If the patient

is scheduled for both of us on the same day, he can only submit one billing -

but I'm still the one who gets the pay.

This has been as little as $39.95 for " Fatty Liver " (i.e. weight management

education) to $189 for " Failure to Thrive " . The average for " Celiac " is about

$139.

No over head for me, no traveling to client homes. I get quarterly checks and an

annual 1099 from the office manager. Course, I do all the calorie counts for

free (decent trade off so far, I average about 3 calorie count records/month).

This has been a win-win situation the past three years.

HLBrewer, MS RD CDE

Pediatric Dietitian, Diabetes Educator

Las Vegas, NV

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