Health Law Blog - Healthcare Legal Issues

Posts Tagged ‘dermatologist’

Dermatology Fraud Risk Areas – Impossibly Long Days

Tuesday, June 27th, 2017

Failure to Supervise and Impossibly Long Days

Payment of $302,000 and Forced Corporate Integrity Agreement – July 2016

fraud and abuse dermatologistsThe government alleged the dermatologist in this case repeatedly billed for services under the “incident to” billing rules during periods when the dermatologist was not present in the office.  Some of the services were allegedly performed when the doctor was traveling out of the country.  The government also alleged the doctor billed for impossibly long days including one day where 26 hours were billed.

This case illustrates the need to comply with the “incident to” billing rules.  Those rules permit a physician extender’s services be billed under the physician in certain circumstances.  In order to qualify to bill incident to, the physician must be physically present within the office suite at the time the extender performs the service.  The physician cannot order the procedure and then leave the office while the procedure is being performed.  There are new Medicare rules clarifying some aspects of the “incident to” billing rules.  There was a previous ambiguity that some providers interpreted as permitting the physician that ordered the service to bill for the services, even though another physician actually supervised the performance of the service.  The rules revision clarified only the supervising physician can bill the services as “incident to” his or her service.  The ordering physician can only bill the service if he or she also supervises the extender.

John H. Fisher

Health Care Counsel
Ruder Ware, L.L.S.C.
500 First Street, Suite 8000
P.O. Box 8050
Wausau, WI 54402-8050

Tel 715.845.4336
Fax 715.845.2718

Ruder Ware is a member of Meritas Law Firms Worldwide

Search
Disclaimer
The Health Care Law Blog is made available by Ruder Ware for educational purposes and to provide a general understanding of some of the legal issues relating to the health care industry. This site does not provide specific legal advice and you should not use the information contained on this site to address your specific situation without consulting with legal counsel that is well versed in health care law and regulation. By using the Health Care Law Blog site you understand that there is no attorney client relationship between you and Ruder Ware or any individual attorney. Postings on this site do not represent the views of our clients. This site links to other information resources on the Internet; these sites are not endorsed or supported by Ruder Ware, and Ruder Ware does not vouch for the accuracy or reliability of any information provided therein. For further information regarding the articles on this blog, contact Ruder Ware through our primary website.