Guest guest Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Tim, This is a great topic for discussion. I have found that therapists will often not credit themselves for the patient/family education that they provide. It's important to understand when you can bill for this service: 1) The education needs to be provided in the company of the patient (if you're pulling family outside the patient's room to discuss caregiver burden issues, etc, it is not billable time). 2) It needs to be education pertinent to your established plan of care and obviously within your scope of practice. I do not bill for " patient/family eduction " per se, but rather, we bill for the topic area being educated on. As an OT, I would bill a 97535 ADL Training charge if I'm providing education on adaptive equipment that would assist with lower body dressing for example. One thing that the therapist cannot bill for is documentation time when it is performed outside of patient treatment time. From an ethical standpoint, even if documentation was performed while treating the patient, I would not bill for all of my time if I felt that my documentation was in any way distracting from the treatment I was providing. I hope this helps with this very important issue. Thanks, Curtis ________________________________ From: PTManager on behalf of tspedersen6 Sent: Tue 1/20/2009 2:48 PM To: PTManager Subject: Missed Minutes Can anyone comment on their experiece with ensuring that staff is taking credit for all billable time in a SNF working with residents covered under Medicare Part A? Where do you find that staff doesn't take credit? What is billed for that shouldn't be as well? Thanks Tim Pedersen PT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Tim, This is a great topic for discussion. I have found that therapists will often not credit themselves for the patient/family education that they provide. It's important to understand when you can bill for this service: 1) The education needs to be provided in the company of the patient (if you're pulling family outside the patient's room to discuss caregiver burden issues, etc, it is not billable time). 2) It needs to be education pertinent to your established plan of care and obviously within your scope of practice. I do not bill for " patient/family eduction " per se, but rather, we bill for the topic area being educated on. As an OT, I would bill a 97535 ADL Training charge if I'm providing education on adaptive equipment that would assist with lower body dressing for example. One thing that the therapist cannot bill for is documentation time when it is performed outside of patient treatment time. From an ethical standpoint, even if documentation was performed while treating the patient, I would not bill for all of my time if I felt that my documentation was in any way distracting from the treatment I was providing. I hope this helps with this very important issue. Thanks, Curtis ________________________________ From: PTManager on behalf of tspedersen6 Sent: Tue 1/20/2009 2:48 PM To: PTManager Subject: Missed Minutes Can anyone comment on their experiece with ensuring that staff is taking credit for all billable time in a SNF working with residents covered under Medicare Part A? Where do you find that staff doesn't take credit? What is billed for that shouldn't be as well? Thanks Tim Pedersen PT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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