Separate Billing Equals Better Reimbursements
Separate Billing Equals Better Reimbursements
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has improved medical billing reimbursement for Medicare patients. Currently, if your practice does medical billing for a Medicare exam on a newly 65 patient, you can also bill for cardiovascular screening tests and diabetes screening tests.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services realizes that separately billing for these screening services may seem incorrect. For this reason they are sending out plenty of medical billing information to explain how to bill for preventative care in the future. For instance, one of the things physicians can bill for separately is diabetes screening tests. As long as one risk factor is established and two of the required characteristics are shown, blood glucose fasting tests and post-glucose challenge tests can be separately reimbursed from the Medicare Welcome visit.
The other type of test that can be billed separately from the Medicare Welcome exam is a cardiovascular screening test. As a matter of fact, three cardiovascular blood tests can be separately reimbursed for patients who have risk factors for cardiac disease, but do not currently have the disease. In this case, medical billing can be done for a cholesterol test for high-density lipoproteins, a total cholesterol test, and a triglyceride test.
This new policy is meant to encourage preventative medicine rather than promote reactive medicine. It is better to stop an illness before it gets out of hand. Medicare would much rather see medical billing for diabetic screening tests than a hospital visit for out of control diabetes. It is better for their bankbook and for the well being of our citizens. Allowing separate medical billing for preventative care will hopefully improve the health of our country. For medical billing, Medicare is taking a step in the right direction
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